Last week I posted news about a Roy Lichtenstein painting had sold at auction for $43 million. Jeff Darcy (in the comments) noted the original comic art upon which the Pop Art painting was based was recently sold on eBay for “a few hundred bucks.” Turns out it was $431 to be exact.

Here’s a piece in Art Info on the contrast between the two art pieces:

Barsalou has his own auction story to tell, in fact, tying the frayed thread between Overgard and Lichtenstein. Last August, the cartoon aficionado found the original Overgard panel on eBay and outdueled four other remote bidders to snag the prize for $431. Overgard had donated his 3,000-plus cartoon archive to the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University, but that panel is not part of that protected trove.

“To me,” said Barsalou, “it was the steal of the century.”

Steal of the century indeed.

Steve Roper by Allen Saunders and William Overgard)

From the BBC:

The comic strip-inspired work was part of a sale of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s auction house.

His previous record of $42 million (£26 million) was set in November last year.

That was for Lichtenstein’s 1964 work Ohhh… Alright… which portrayed a woman talking into a telephone.

Auction is on January 22.

From CNN:

The work, “Save or Delete Jungle Book,” went under the hammer alongside works by other urban artists as part of an Urban Art sale at Bonhams auction house in London.

The image was originally commissioned by Greenpeace for a poster campaign highlighting the problem of deforestation, with the characters transposed onto an image of a devastated forest. But the posters were never circulated due to copyright issues with Disney.

The complainant, an amateur art collector who did not want to be named, said: “I was thumbing through the catalogue when I came across this drawing.

“It looked like it had come out of the pages of Der St”urmer (the virulently anti-Semitic Nazi publication). I found it utterly nauseating that Christies would include this seriously as a lot for sale or than anyone would want to pay money for it.”

A spokeswoman for Christie’s said: “After discussion with the vendor, the item was withdrawn from sale.”

As repulsive as the cartoon may be to some, I can’t help to look at it as a period piece that has some historical merit and Christies should be free to auction it. If the offended collector is offended, he shouldn’t buy it.

Roy Lichtenstein’s famous “Ohhh…Alright…” comic strip painting took in whopping $42.6 million in a recent auction at Christie’s and Southeby’s. The Lichtenstein piece trumped Andy Warhol’s black and white coke bottle painting that went for $35 million earlier in the week.

This year the auction will include about 150 editorial cartoons from 50 cartoonists – 14 of them Pulitzer winners. One of the cartoons on the auction block is a 1922 John T. McCutcheon from the Chicago Tribune. This year’s Pulitzer winner, Mark Fiore will be in attendance as is customary.

From Comic Book Resources:

“Since the inception of the Comics category at Heritage in November of 2001, it’s been nothing less than a juggernaut,” said Ed Jaster, Senior Vice President of Heritage. “Now, $150 million later we’re sitting at the top of the comics and comic art auction business. It’s taken a tremendous amount of work, but it’s definitely been a labor of love.”

Participating artist include:

• Alice Hunt & Tracy Williams – Goodbye Chains
• Anthony Clark – Nedroid
• Becky Dreistadt – Tiny Kitten Teeth
• Brandon Bird – Brandon Bird’s Brandon Bird-O-Rama!
• Carly Monardo – Whirring Blender Design Challenge
• Casey Sorrow – Sorrow Industries
• Christopher Hastings – The Adventures Of Dr. McNinja
• Count Dolby Von Luckner and Geoff – Frederick The Great
• Dan G – Sassy Fortnight
• David Malki! – Wondermark
• Dean Trippe – Butterfly & Project: Rooftop
• Ed Gedeon – Everyday Heroes
• Jamie Noguchi – Yellow Peril
• Jason Viola – Herman The Manatee
• Jessica ‘Senshuu’ Cantlope – Millennium
• Jon Rosenberg – Scenes From A Multiverse & Goats
• Kate Beaton – Hark A Vagrant
• Lauren Monardo – The Slightly Askew Adventures Of Inspector Ham And Eggs
• Lynn Lau – Tuesday With Everything In It
• Matt Rainwater & Austin Price – Garage Raja
• Michael “Mookie” Terracciano – Dominic Deegan
• Phil Foglio – Girl Genius
• Rosscott – Rosscott, Inc.
• Stephanie McMillan – Code Green & Minimum Security
• Calamities Of Nature
• SEQALAB
• John Larison
• Rachel Reed
• Rashad Doucet
• Whitney Leopard

With cameras rolling, “Roadshow” appraiser Gary Sohmers estimated the value of a single “Peanuts” comic frame at $40,000. That’s when Kiper went silent.

“I am not one to be quiet,” she said, “but I was speechless.”

And Sohmers had yet to talk about the week’s worth of comics about Halley’s Comet. When he wrapped up his appraisal, Kiper was in utter shock (and she hesitates watching her reaction when the episode airs tonight).

After the show, Kiper and her husband carried the collection back to their Phoenix home, knowing that a collection she thought might be worth $50,000 had just been valued at $350,000.