An original drawing of the Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry sold for 350,000 euros at auction

A drawing of The Little Prince, a watercolor by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry which was used in the original edition of the famous tale, was sold at auction on Thursday in London for some 350,000 euros, Christie's announced. This 1942 drawing went for 302,400 pounds, ten times more than the estimate, which was between 25,000 and 35,000 pounds. Reproduced on page 59 of the New York edition, it represents the Little Prince who dialogues with a snake in the Sahara desert.

It had already appeared at an auction at Sotheby's in 1989. "The drawings and watercolors in their final or almost completed version as reproduced in the first edition (...) are of the greatest interest and extremely rare" , described Christie's in the catalog.

Christie's recalled a sale at Artcurial in Paris in June 2017. A watercolor of the Little Prince sitting on a chair and contemplating the sun went for 294,000 euros including fees. And another, with the hero lying on his stomach in a rose garden, was sold for 226,000 euros.

The Little Prince, a classic of children's literature translated around the world, is the most read fiction in history. According to the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Foundation, the book has sold, in 80 years, more than 150 million copies worldwide. The author, in exile in the United States during the Second World War, had responded to an order from his American publisher who wanted a Christmas story. Died at the controls of his plane in July 1944, a little over a year after the French and English versions were published in New York, he did not have time to see the incredible success of this book.

His drawings of the blond-haired hero, who wanders from planet to planet and meets multiple characters, greatly contributed to the popularity of the tale.