Its value is estimated between 400,000 and 500,000 euros. This is an original cover drawing ofAsterix and Cleopatra, a gouache measuring 32×17 cm, signed Albert Uderzo and dating from 1963. It will be auctioned next Sunday in Brussels, but those close to the designer are protesting. According to his widow and daughter, the work was in fact stolen.
It was sold by the son of a man who became its owner more than fifty years ago “following a donation made by Albert Uderzo”, assures the Millon auction house, which decided to maintain the sale despite the controversy. However, Sylvie Uderzo, the daughter of the designer who died in 2020, “disputes the ownership” of this board, held according to her without “any certificate” or written mention from her father.
Complaint filed
Sylvie Uderzo last month instructed French lawyer Orly Rezlan to file a complaint with the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. The complaint was filed on November 27 for “concealment of breach of trust or theft,” said Mr. Rezlan. “Any current or future owner or holder of this work is likely to be prosecuted for receiving stolen goods,” the lawyer insisted on Thursday, saying she was “surprised” that the sale was not suspended.
“During his lifetime, Albert Uderzo publicly stated that he would oppose the sale of any drawing that did not include his dedication, adding this, regarding given plates: “you bring it to me, I will dedicate it to you” », underlined Orly Rezlan. She specified that she was acting on behalf of Sylvie but also of Ada Uderzo, the widow of the designer.
The dedication at the heart of the debate
The “non-dedication” argument is brushed aside by Millon Belgique, a subsidiary of a century-old auction company founded in Paris and which claims to be a reference in the world of comics. “The reason for opposition expressed by the Uderzo family according to which an original not signed by Albert Uderzo would necessarily be the result of theft does not stand up to legal analysis,” indicated the firm, criticizing “a simple petition from principle”. According to Arnaud de Partz, general manager of Millon Belgium, “many other unsigned pieces [d’Uderzo] have already been officially put on sale, in public sale.
To prove his good faith, the manager produced a copy of a black and white photo in which we see the man presented as the purchaser of the drawing sharing a meal at the table of the Uderzo couple, in the garden of a Norman hotel at the end of the 1960s. “We showed this photo to Sylvie Uderzo to show her that the seller’s father knew her father well,” argued Arnaud de Partz.