Heritage Auctions Blitz American Comic Book Art Auction Record – artmarketblog.com
Following on from the success of the Tintin comic auction in Paris, and further cementing the significance of the market for original comic book art, American auction house Heritage Auctions have smashed the auction record for American comic book art with Todd McFarlane’s cover art for the 1990 Spider-Man #328.
Selling for a world record $657,250 on July 26 as part of Heritage Auctions’ Signature® Comics and Comic Art Auction in Beverly Hills, the artwork, showing Spidey demonstrating his awesome new powers on the Hulk, is now the single most valuable piece of American comic ever sold at auction!!
Heritage Auctions also broke the record for the highest grossing comic book and comic book art auction with a sale total of $10,463,613. Sale figures were amazing with 99.930% sold by value and 99.920% sold by lot.
According to Todd Hignite, Vice President of Heritage Auctions,”this is an this earth-trembling cover illustration and an equally magnificent price. McFarlane’s art brims with the raw energy that sky-rocketed McFarlane to the top of the industry and, now, the top of the auction world.”
The Spiderman cover art was sold as part of the first tranche of the Shamus Collection of Modern Masterworks, a unprecedented collection of late-1980s and early 1990s original comic book art put together by Martin Shamus, owner of a comics and memorabilia shop on Long Island.
Also featured in the sale was McFarlane’s original art for Spider-Man #1 (Marvel, 1990) which brought $358,500. Other comic art highlights of the auction included:
Lot # Amount PR Description
92030 $657,250.00 Todd McFarlane The Amazing Spider-Man #328 Cover Original Art (Marvel, 1990).
92025 $358,500.00 Todd McFarlane Spider-Man #1 Cover Original Art (Marvel, 1990).
92219 $143,400.00 Todd McFarlane Amazing Spider-Man #317 Venom Cover Original Art (Marvel, 1989).
**Nicholas Forrest is a Sydney/London based art market analyst, art consultant and writer. He is the founder of the Art Market Blog (artmarketblog.com) which offers independent commentaries as well as research and analysis on the current art market, and has recently been published in Fabrik magazine, Verve magazine, Visual Art Beat magazine, Australian Art Collector magazine, Art & Investment magazine and many others. Nic has made several radio appearances (both nationally and internationally) as an art market expert and has received press from the likes of the New York Times, Conde Nast Portfolio and Times of London.
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