A rare copy of the 1938 comic that introduced Superman to the world has sold for $15 million (£11.2 million) to an anonymous collector.
A private sale of the first issue of Action Comics, once stolen from actor Nicolas Cage’s home and returned to him more than a decade later, was announced Friday.
The previous comic book sales record was set in November when a pristine Superman #1 sold for $9.12 million at auction. Both sales are well over the original price of 10 cents. That’s about $2.25 in today’s money.
Superman’s debut is one of several stories anthologized in Action Comics No. 1, widely considered to have defined the superhero genre as we know it today. Fewer than 100 copies are thought to exist.
Friday’s Action Comics sale was negotiated with New York-based Metropolis Collectibles/Comic Connect, and both the comic book owner and buyer wished to remain anonymous.
The broker said the copy was rated a 9 out of 10 by the Certified Guartanty Company, which specializes in authenticating collectibles, giving it the joint highest score of any comic to date.
Brokers said its value was further inflated due to its association with Hollywood star Cage.
The Con Air and National Treasure star purchased this particular copy for a then-record $150,000 in 1996.
However, the comic was stolen from a party at Cage’s home in 2000 and discovered inside a warehouse in California in 2011.
“Over the course of 11 years, its value soared. Thieves stole it and made Nicolas Cage a lot of money,” said Metropolis/ComicConnect CEO Stephen Fishler.
Cage found the copy again, and six months later it sold at auction for $2.2 million.
Fisher likened the cartoon’s history to the brazen theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris in 1911, transforming the then-little-known work into the world’s most famous painting.
“The restoration of the painting transformed the Mona Lisa from just a great Da Vinci painting into a global icon. This is Action No. 1: an icon of American pop culture.”
