Astro Boy Sketch Sells for 269,400 Euros in Paris Auction

May 6, 2018

Paris- A sketch of "Tetsuwan Atomu" (Astro Boy), a popular manga series produced by the late renowned Japanese cartoonist Osamu Tezuka, sold for 269,400 euros, or about 35 million yen, in an auction in Paris on Saturday. It is the first time for a Tetsuwan Atomu sketch to have been auctioned outside Japan, an official of French auction house Artcurial said. The successful bid was about six times higher than the level estimated before the auction. Drawn in black ink and watercolor paints on a piece of paper measuring 35 centimeters by 25 centimeters, the sketch depicts robot boy Atomu, the main character in the manga, fighting an enemy in six panels. The sketch, which includes an autograph of Tezuka, was apparently for use in "Shonen," a monthly magazine mainly for boys, in the second half of the 1950s. Tetsuwan Atomu appeared on the Shonen magazine from 1952 to 1968. Jiji Press