Tintin's Blue Lotus Cover at Auction by Artcurial

The “Blue Lotus” is one of Hergé's masterpieces. The album marks a turning point in his creation. BELGA via AFP
The “Blue Lotus” is one of Hergé's masterpieces. The album marks a turning point in his creation. BELGA via AFP
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Tintin's Blue Lotus Cover at Auction by Artcurial

The “Blue Lotus” is one of Hergé's masterpieces. The album marks a turning point in his creation. BELGA via AFP
The “Blue Lotus” is one of Hergé's masterpieces. The album marks a turning point in his creation. BELGA via AFP

The Artcurial auction house has sold eight of Hergé's great Tintin paintings for record prices, including one sold in 2014 for $3.6 million. The house is expected to break a new record on January 14 with another Tintin drawing. It is auctioning a 1936 cover drawn by Hergé for one of Tintin's volumes entitled "The Blue Lotus."

According to AFP, the cover is expected to fetch over two million euros.

The "masterpiece" features Tintin in a Chinese costume, emerging from a jar in front of a menacing dragon.

The amazing cover made with Indian ink, watercolor, and gouache, will likely break the last record price fetched by another Tintin drawing in 2014.

The Blue Lotus cover is one of the Belgian artist's greatest pieces, and was considered a turning point in his journey. It was published in 1934-1935 in the "Petit-Vingtième" magazine before the official release of the album in 1936.

Georges Rémi, known as Hergé, fell for China after he met Tchang Tchong-Jen, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium, and they became friends for life.

The painting wasn't selected for the cover of "The Blue Lotus" because it was judged too expensive to reproduce by the publisher, which ultimately used a simplified version of the same scene.

But, this work, displayed in an online auction due to the pandemic restrictions, has raised many question marks. According to the owners, heirs of the Tintin publisher Louis Casterman, the drawing on sale was given as a present by Hergé to Casterman's son (seven years old at the time).

It is believed that the kid folded the drawing and kept it in a drawer for decades.

However, experts are skeptical about this story. Philippe Goddin, professional expert of Tintin, says the story of Jean-Paul Casterman (who died in 2019) about receiving this painting as a gift is "very doubtful."

He suggests the folding marks on the drawing because Hergé placed it in an envelope before sending it to the magazine's vice president.



Dogs Prove Invaluable in Search for Los Angeles Fire Victims

San Francisco firefighter Joshua Davis from the National Search and Rescue Response System and his dog Bosco take a break in the search of rubbles of houses destroyed by the Pacific Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on January 16, 2025. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP)
San Francisco firefighter Joshua Davis from the National Search and Rescue Response System and his dog Bosco take a break in the search of rubbles of houses destroyed by the Pacific Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on January 16, 2025. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP)
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Dogs Prove Invaluable in Search for Los Angeles Fire Victims

San Francisco firefighter Joshua Davis from the National Search and Rescue Response System and his dog Bosco take a break in the search of rubbles of houses destroyed by the Pacific Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on January 16, 2025. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP)
San Francisco firefighter Joshua Davis from the National Search and Rescue Response System and his dog Bosco take a break in the search of rubbles of houses destroyed by the Pacific Fire along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California, on January 16, 2025. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP)

In the ashes of what was once a luxury home on Malibu's Pacific coast, an energetic dog runs from spot to spot, searching for victims of one of the huge wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles.

Tulla, a sandy-colored Labrador retriever, stops next to a crusted gas canister that was once perhaps part of a barbecue, and begins to bark furiously, AFP reported.

To the human eye, there is nothing there, but Tulla's powerful sense of smell says otherwise.

Moments later, handlers bring in another dog, which also homes in on the same spot, offering a strong indication that the body of one of the dozens still missing from the massive blazes may finally be found.

Marco Rodriguez, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, says the dogs are "critical" to the search effort.

"We have thousands of homes here in this area that have burned and approximately 15 people that have been reported missing.

"We're doing our best, and the dogs are an integral part of that," he told AFP.

For thousands of firefighters doing 12- or even 24-hour shifts, the last ten days have been back-breaking; hard physical work made even more difficult for those who have seen swaths of their city burned to the ground.

But for the dogs, it is something of a game, says Joshua Davis, who has deployed with Bosco -- a black Labrador -- from his base in San Francisco.

"They're used to crawling on rubble. They enjoy it," he said.

While there's no emotional toll on the animals, there are physical dangers that require special protective boots to safeguard their paws.

"There's a lot of sharp glass and a lot of nails and debris out there that can injure the dogs," said Davis.

- 'Like every other firefighter' -

The dogs in the search and rescue unit have routines similar to the humans they work alongside, said Davis.

"Every day we go to work, he gets fed, just like every other firefighter," he said.

"He gets training on various things and we do daily exercises with him, so he knows how to run on a treadmill and he can climb ladders."

When he's not on operations, Bosco keeps his skills up with a weekly session in a dummied-up practice disaster area, where trainers hide scents for him to find.

Bosco was originally trained to be a guide dog but "failed miserably" because he had too much energy, said Davis.

But that energy makes him perfect for searching -- where the dog has learned to associate the discovery of a scent with the chance to play with his favorite toy.

In Bosco's case, that's a piece of fire hose.

"When they find the scent, they'll bark at it. I'll get to the victim and/or the source where they're barking at, and then I'll reward Bosco," said Davis.

The dogs are not infallible and there are false alarms, but on the whole they drastically reduce the amount of work that humans have to do.

"A lot of the dogs here today can cover a building that has been collapsed in five minutes or less," said Davis.

"It can take four to five firefighters 10 to 20 minutes to cover a location."

For Bosco, who has worked alongside Davis for three years searching countless properties, it's not all serious labor.

In his downtime, he has a successful Instagram feed, where followers can see what he has been up to.

This week, one of his stories showed Bosco sitting in a car, looking enthusiastically through the window with an apt caption: "Ready to work, boss!"