A rare copy of the 1938 comic that introduced Superman to the world has sold to an anonymous collector for $15m (£11.2m).
The private sale of a copy of Action Comics No 1 – which was once stolen from the home of actor Nicolas Cage and returned to him a decade later – was announced on Friday.
The previous record for sales of a comic book was set in November, when a pure Superman No 1 fetched $9.12m at auction. Both sales are more than the original 10 cent price tags – or about $2.25 in today’s money.
Superman’s debut is one of the many stories anthologized in Action Comics No 1, which is widely credited with defining the superhero genre as we know it. Fewer than 100 copies are believed to exist.
Friday’s sale of Action Comics was handled by New York-based Metropolis Collectibles/Comic Connect, which said the owner of the comic book and the buyer wished to remain anonymous.
The broker said the copy was graded nine out of a possible 10 points the Certified Guarantee Companywhich specializes in authenticating collectables – making it the joint highest-rated copy of the comic to date.
The broker said its value was further inflated by its rumored association with Hollywood star Cage.
The Con Air and National Treasure star bought this particular copy in 1996 for $150,000 – a record at the time.
But the comic was stolen during a party at Cage’s house in 2000 and was only found – inside a storage unit in California – in 2011.
“In that 11-year period, it went up in value. The thief made Nicolas Cage a lot of money by stealing it,” said Metropolis/ComicConnect CEO Stephen Fishler.
Cage was reunited with the copy and, six months later, it sold at auction for $2.2m.
Fishler compares the history of comics to the brazen theft of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum in Paris in 1911, transforming the then little-known work into the world’s most famous painting.
“The recovery of the painting took the Mona Lisa from being a great Da Vinci painting to a world icon – and that’s Action No 1. An icon of American pop culture.”