Harry Potter artwork breaks auction records to become most valuable item ever sold
The original watercolor illustration for J.K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" sold for a record-breaking $1.9 million (approx. €1.7 million) yesterday (Wednesday 26 June), becoming the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold at auction.
Thomas Taylor’s artwork, which sold at Sotheby’s in New York, was featured on the covers of the first edition of the 1997 novel.
Taylor was just 23 when he received his first professional commission to create a cover for J.K. Rowling’s first novel. He was one of the first people to read the manuscript for the original Harry Potter book, and it took him two days to finish the artwork, which was done using concentrated watercolours and black pencil outlines.
"This is really the first visualization of Harry and the wizarding world," said Kalika Sands from Sotheby's auction house.
An original watercolour for Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone Sotheby’s
Prior to the auction, its price estimate was between $400,000 and $600,000 - which Sotheby’s claims is the “highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work”.
It sold for more than three times the expected price. The identity of the buyer was not revealed.
The original watercolour fetched $1.9 million Sotherby's
The previous record for a Harry Potter auction item was set in 2021 when an unsigned first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for $421,000 (€394,000) at Heritage Auctions in Dallas.
The sale of a handwritten manuscript of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” a fairytale book referenced in Harry Potter, is expected to sell for between $250,000 and $350,000, with bidding closing tomorrow.