Uderzo’s Asterix in Britain Cover Sells for Record €1.474 Million

ORF reported that Albert Uderzo’s original cover for Astérix chez les Bretons sold in Liège on September 13 for €1.2 million at hammer and about €1.474 million with charges. The fee-inclusive result sets a reported auction record for Uderzo, while the hammer price alone was six times the high estimate.

 
 

Uderzo’s Asterix Cover Clears €1.2 Million

The record concerns a single painted object, not a rare copy of the comic. ORF reported the result on September 14, one day after BD Enchères offered the work as lot 545 at the Palais des Congrès in Liège, Belgium.

The auction catalogue describes a 34-by-47-centimeter gouache on cardboard, signed and dedicated on its mat. It depicts Asterix, Obelix, and their British companion Anticlimax fleeing with a barrel while rugby players give chase. The image condenses one of the album’s central comic pursuits into the frontal, crowded action required of a cover.

BD Enchères estimated the work at €150,000 to €200,000. Comparing estimate with hammer—the correct like-for-like measure—the €1.2 million winning bid reached eight times the low estimate and six times the high. The premium and royalty belong in a separate comparison because auction estimates normally exclude them.

Infographic by Art in Context, based on Livres Hebdo, BD Enchères via HiBid, SABAM.

 
 

How €1.2 Million Became About €1.474 Million

“Hammer price” is the winning bid before the auction house adds buyer-side charges. “Price with charges” is the amount used in most headline record comparisons, but it can combine several components.

Price stage	Amount
Low estimate	€150,000
High estimate	€200,000
Hammer price	€1,200,000
22% buyer’s premium	€264,000
Artist’s resale royalty	€10,500
Lot fee	€1
Calculated total	€1,474,501

That reconstruction follows the auctioneer’s published 22% premium and €1 lot fee. The terms also make the buyer responsible for Belgium’s artist’s resale royalty, or droit de suite. Applying the published Belgian royalty bands—4% on the first €50,000, then 3%, 1%, 0.5%, and 0.25% on successive portions—adds €10,500 at a €1.2 million hammer.

The inputs therefore produce €1,474,501. ORF’s €1.474 million should be read as an approximate reported total, not as an invoice precise to the euro. The small rounding difference does not affect the record comparison; the distinction between €1.2 million at hammer and roughly €1.474 million all-in does.

Albert Uderzo at an autograph session during the 2008 Salon du livre in Paris. Photo: Georges Seguin (Okki), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

 
 

Why This Gouache Is More Than a Published Cover

Uderzo painted the image in gouache, an opaque water-based medium that can produce the flat, saturated color and crisp revisions needed for reproduced illustration. Here, the market is pricing the hand-painted source object: the cardboard carries the brushwork from which the mass-produced cover image was derived.

The timing also places it at a decisive point in the series. The official Asterix record says the story began in Pilote no. 307 on September 9, 1965, before its first album edition in 1966. René Goscinny wrote the story and Uderzo drew it. The story began in Pilote on September 9, 1965, and first appeared as an album in 1966; BD Enchères’ catalogue does not date the cover itself.

Its ownership history strengthens the object’s connection to that publishing moment. According to BD Enchères, Uderzo and Goscinny gave the cover to publisher Georges Dargaud and dedicated it to him as a friend before a publisher. Both creators’ names appear in the dedication on the mat, where the catalogue also locates the signature.

The listing also notes a halo-like mark on the mat. It does not locate that mark on the painted cardboard itself, and it supplies no condition report detailed enough to judge the gouache’s surface. The price therefore demonstrates bidding demand for this example, not proof that every early Uderzo cover would command the same valuation.

 
 

The 2017 Record Still Needs a Like-for-Like Comparison

The previous benchmark came from the 2017 sale of Uderzo’s cover for Le Tour de Gaule d’Astérix, published in English as Asterix and the Banquet. The Art Newspaper France later identified €1.4 million with fees as the world-record result for an original Uderzo cover. Deutsche Welle also reported €1.4 million at the time.

Drouot reported the 2017 fee-inclusive result as €1.449 million, subsequently rounded by outlets to €1.4 million or €1.45 million. Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported the 2017 total as €1.45 million. The calculated €1,474,501 total is €25,501 above the exact €1.449 million result reported in 2017. It therefore exceeds both versions of the earlier fee-inclusive benchmark.

Excluding the separately charged resale royalty, the €1.2 million hammer, 22% premium, and €1 lot fee produce a fee-inclusive result of €1,464,001, €15,001 above the exact 2017 benchmark. It does not, by itself, establish a hammer-price record: the accessible 2017 reports state fee-inclusive totals rather than a directly comparable hammer. The strongest conclusion is also the narrowest one—Uderzo’s 1965 Astérix chez les Bretons cover now holds the reported record when buyer-side charges are included.

 

Albert Uderzo draws Asterix at de Bijenkorf in Amsterdam in 1971. Photograph by Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication; cropped.

 
 

The Record Holds, but the Exact Invoice Remains Private

ORF reports a September 13 hammer of €1.2 million and a total near €1.474 million; BD Enchères establishes the object, estimate, provenance, and applicable fees.

The auctioneer’s charges and the Belgian royalty schedule imply €1,474,501, showing exactly how a €1.2 million bid became a roughly €1.474 million purchase.

The 2017 comparison ranges from €1.4 million to €1.45 million in established reports, and the new result remains higher at either figure. The buyer’s identity, the cover’s next location, and the exact invoiced total remain undisclosed.