An original 1963 drawing by Albert Uderzo is set to be auctioned in Brussels on Sunday, although the Asterix creator's widow and daughter filed a fresh objection on Thursday, claiming the work had been stolen.
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This is an original drawing of the cover of “Asterix and Cleopatra”, a gouache measuring 32×17 cm, the value of which is estimated at 400,000 to 500,000 euros.
The work was sold by the son of a man who became the owner more than 50 years ago “as a result of a gift from Albert Uderzo,” assures the Millon auction house, which decided to go ahead with the sale despite controversy.
Because the problem is that Sylvie Uderzo, daughter of the designer who died in 2020, denies “ownership” of this board, which, according to her, is held without “any certificate” or written mention of her father.
Last month, Sylvie Uderzo commissioned French lawyer Orly Rezlan to file a complaint with the Brussels public prosecutor's office. The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 27 for “concealment of breach of trust or theft,” Mr. Rezlan said.
When contacted by AFP on Thursday, the prosecutor's office could not immediately respond to the follow-up to the complaint.
“Any current or future owner or holder of this work is likely to be prosecuted for receiving stolen goods,” the lawyer emphasized on Thursday, saying she was “surprised” that the sale was not suspended.
“Albert Uderzo publicly stated during his lifetime that he would refuse the sale of drawings without his dedication, adding, with regard to given panels: “If you bring them to me, I will dedicate them to you,” he underlined Orly Rezlan.
She stated that she was acting on behalf of Sylvie, but also on behalf of Ada Uderzo, the designer's widow.
A photo at Uderzo's table
The “non-dedication” argument is brushed aside by Millon Belgique, a Paris-based subsidiary of a century-old auction company that claims to be a reference in the world of comics.
“The grounds for objection expressed by the Uderzo family, according to which an original not signed by Albert Uderzo must necessarily be the result of a theft, does not stand up to legal analysis,” the company explained, criticizing “a simple motion of principle.”
According to Arnaud de Partz, general director of Millon Belgium, “many other non-dedicated pieces (by Uderzo) are already officially offered for public sale.”
To prove his good faith, the manager presented a copy of a black and white photograph in which we see the man presented as the buyer of the drawing having a meal at the table of the Uderzo couple in the garden of a Norman hotel in the late 1960s.
“We showed Sylvie Uderzo this photo to show her that the seller’s father knew her father well,” argued Mr de Partz.
“Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra” (2002) was a great success in the cinema: The Adventures of the Gauls in Egypt was initially a comic album.
On the cover drawing, Uderzo parodies the poster for the 1963 Hollywood production “Cleopatra,” which was then the most expensive film in history. Uderzo's Cleopatra strikes the same pose as Elizabeth Taylor, Asterix replaces Julius Caesar, played by Rex Harrison, and Obelix Marc Antony, played by Richard Burton.
In recent years, comic book originals have attracted an increasingly larger and affluent collecting audience, which explains the rise in prices.
In February, an original drawing by Hergé from 1942 for the cover of “Tintin in America” was sold in Paris for 2.16 million euros.
In certain sales, such as the cover of “Lotus Bleu” in 2021, the designer's rights holders questioned the manner in which the work was acquired without necessarily taking legal action.