An original watercolor by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, featuring the Little Prince conversing with a snake in the heart of the Sahara desert, recently sold at auction for €350,000.
The drawing, which appeared on page 59 of the original New York edition of the famous tale, was sold at auction in London on Thursday, December 14, 2023. The work, dating from 1942, fetched £302,400, ten times more than the estimate of between £25,000 and £35,000, Christie’s announced.
This drawing had previously appeared at auction, at Sotheby’s in 1989: “Drawings and watercolors in their final or near-finished version as reproduced in the first edition (…) are of the greatest interest and extremely rare”, Christie’s described in the catalog.
In June 2017, a watercolor of the Little Prince seated on a chair and contemplating the sun had sold for €294,000, and another for €226,000 depicting the little hero lying on his stomach in a rose garden.
The popularity of this timeless masterpiece explains why so many people buy his works. According to the Antoine de Saint Exupéry estate, The Little Prince, translated worldwide, has won over 200 million readers across the globe over the past 80 years.
