A rare copy of the 1938 comic that introduced Superman to the world has sold to an anonymous collector for $15 million (£11.2 million).
The private sale of the Action Comics No 1 copy—once stolen from actor Nicolas Cage's home and returned over a decade later—was announced on Friday.
The previous record for the sale of a comic book was set in November, when a pristine Superman No 1 sold for $9.12 million at auction. Both sales far exceed the original 10-cent price tags—or around $2.25 in today's money.
Superman's debut is one of several tales anthologized in Action Comics No 1, which is widely credited with defining the superhero genre as we know it. Fewer than 100 copies are thought to exist.
The sale was negotiated by New York-based Metropolis Collectibles/Comic Connect, and both the comic book's owner and the buyer wished to remain anonymous. The broker noted that the copy had been graded nine out of a possible ten points by the Certified Guaranty Company, specializing in authenticating collectibles, making it the joint-highest scoring copy of the comic to date.
This particular comic's value is further inflated by its storied connection to Hollywood star Cage, who purchased it in 1996 for $150,000—a record at the time. The comic was stolen during a party at Cage's home in 2000 and rediscovered in 2011 inside a storage unit in California.
During the 11-year period it was missing, its value skyrocketed. The thief made Nicolas Cage a lot of money by stealing it, said Metropolis/ComicConnect CEO Stephen Fishler.
Cage was reunited with the comic and sold it shortly after for $2.2 million at auction.
Fishler compared the comic's dramatic history to the theft of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum in 1911, stating, The recovery of the painting made the Mona Lisa go from being just a great Da Vinci painting to a world icon—and that's what Action No 1 is. An icon of American pop culture.
