It has been an interesting month for Harry Potter books and illustrations. Not only did a rare copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sell at an auction in Edinburgh for €53,000 on June 20, but now a piece of art from the first book has also broken at least one record at a different auction, this time in New York.
According to People Magazine, on June 26 an auction took place at the Sotheby's auction house in New York featuring a watercolor illustration from a first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Leading up to the actual auction, estimates were placed on the art that indicated that it might potentially sell for between $400,000 and $600,000. And before this week, that was already the highest estimate for a piece of art from the series.
However, it turns out that those estimates were actually too low. And not by a small amount either. It turns out that someone really wanted this illustration and they were willing to pay for it.
So how much did the Harry Potter art sell for at auction?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone illustration exceeds expectations at Sotheby's auction
After 10 minutes of bidding, between four different bidders, the watercolor illustration from an original printing of the first Harry Potter book sold for an impressive $1.9 million. That is $1.5 million more than the lower end of the estimate, which is wild.
The first time this same piece of art sold was in 2001 when J.K. Rowling was still working on the book series. At the time, it sold for approximately $108,000. Now 23 years later, that same piece of art has garnered nearly $2 million. And considering the artist who created our first look at Harry Potter was just 23 years old at the time that he drew the image, it is impossible to deny that this is the kind of news any artist or aspiring artist dreams of. Of course, it took 27 years for that to happen, but it is still an impressive feat.
At the end of the day, this illustration has broken a record in terms of its value as part of the Harry Potter franchise. In fact, this piece "became the most valuable item in the Harry Potter franchise on Wednesday."
Considering how much a rare, first printing of the book sold for earlier this month with errors in the book, it actually doesn't come as a surprise that even the artwork from the book is commanding high dollar amounts.
What do you think fellow book lovers? Does this latest auction news for the Harry Potter series surprise you?