$3.2M

A painting of comic book hero Tintin sold at auction Thursday for a record US$3.2 million. It is the work of Belgian illustrator Georges Remi — better known by his nom de plume, Hergé, author of the Tintin comic books. He died in 1983. The 1936 painting was proposed as a cover but was rejected, so Remi gave it as a gift to his publisher's seven-year-old son, who kept it folded in a drawer, always declining offers to sell the work.