Uderzo's daughter takes action against Asterix auction
The drawings by Asterix creator Albert Uderzo regularly end up under the hammer. The previous auction record is 1.4 million euros. The original cover of the comic "Asterix and Cleopatra" is also expected to fetch a lot of money. But the artist's daughter wants to prevent this.
The daughter of Asterix cartoonist Albert Uderzo is taking legal action against the planned auction of one of her father's works. Sylvie Uderzo has filed a lawsuit, her lawyer announced. She argued that the original cover of the comic "Asterix and Cleopatra", which is to be auctioned, was apparently acquired by the seller under dubious circumstances.
"The aim of the lawsuit is initially to prevent the sale or, in any case, to get more time to clarify the circumstances surrounding the ownership of the drawing," said lawyer Orly Rezlan. The lawsuit alleges abuse of trust or theft. The gouache drawing by Uderzo dates back to 1963.
When announcing the auction, the auction house Millon stated that the bidder had owned the cover for "more than 50 years". It had been offered to him by Uderzo "at a dinner among friends". The auction is actually scheduled to take place on December 10 in Brussels.
The auction house Millon is expecting proceeds of between 400,000 and 500,000 euros. For the cover, Uderzo had parodied the film poster for the Hollywood movie "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor, the most expensive film of all time at the time. The previous auction record for an Asterix drawing is a good 1.4 million euros for the cover of "Tour de France".
Albert Uderzo created the characters Asterix and Obelix in 1959 together with the author René Goscinny. After Goscinny's unexpected death in 1977, Uderzo continued on his own for decades. He also died in 2020, but had already retired as the person responsible for Asterix years earlier.
Uderzo was born on April 25, 1927 as the son of Italian immigrants near Reims. At the end of the 1940s, he was one of the most successful illustrators of his generation - despite his color blindness. "Asterix" is the most successful French comic and has been translated into more than 110 languages and dialects.
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Sylvie Uderzo, the daughter of Asterix creator Albert Uderzo, believes the gouache drawing of "Asterix and Cleopatra" was obtained under questionable circumstances. Despite the auction house's claim of ownership for over 50 years, she intends to use comic-related entertainment as a basis for her legal action, aiming to either halt the sale or gain more time for investigation.
Source: www.ntv.de
