A rare edition of the first volume of the Harry Potter saga reached a record price in an auction in the United States. A copy of the first run of JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” printed in Britain in 1997, sold for $ 471,000 (just over € 417,000), Dallas-based Heritage Auctions announced.
This was the highest price ever paid in the world for a “Harry Potter” book and an all-time record for a work of fiction published in the 20th century, the Texas-based auction house said. Several auction bidders quickly pushed the price of the book up from an initial estimate of $ 75,000. Eventually, a bidder connected by phone to the auction house won the tender.
The name of the buyer has not been revealed at the moment. The first volume of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by British author Joanne K. Rowling was first published in 1997 in just 500 copies by the English publishing house Bloomsbury. Most of the copies were destined for UK libraries.
With more than 500 million copies sold, the Harry Potter series about a wizard’s battle against the dark forces is one of the most successful books in the world. Children and young people, but also many adults, devoured the seven novels translated into more than 80 languages and also taken to the cinema.