Philippe Labaune, from finance to comics collection

Like so many of us, he is in love with comics. But Philippe Labaune decided to make it a profession. Become collector, he organizes from February 27 to March 14 the largest exhibition and sale of European comics ever organized in New York.

“What distinguishes children from adults is the size of their toys” said François Giroud. It is perhaps to confirm that he is firmly in adulthood that Philippe Labaune proudly displays on the walls of the Chelsea family loft a huge drawing by Tanino Liberatore, Italian cartoonist. But the size has little to do with the case. The pieces displayed in the rest of the apartment are more modest in size, but, from a dedication by Uderzo to an original plate by Boule and Bill, including a Frankin or an Alix plate by Jacques Martin, the passion for Philippe Labaune is beyond doubt. His love of comics even guided a professional retraining, which led him to organize this exhibition-sale in Chelsea.

“I've been hearing about the idea of ​​having a big European comic book exhibition in New York for 20 years, he says. So, I do it! ”. For this anthology of some 70 years of Franco-Belgian comics, he has brought together works – a mixture of original plates and canvases or drawings – by 50 artists, starting with all honor, by Hergé. “There is hardly ever boards or drawings by Hergé on the market, but we are presenting one, which will therefore not be for sale, thanks to a collector's loan ”. The original plate extracted from the Bijoux de la Castafiore, presented with its pencil, has even a little New York history since the collector in question, André Querton, former Belgian diplomat, was stationed in New York, before becoming president of Dargaud editions .

Among the other notable works in the exhibition, a drawing by François Schuiten in homage to the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, a plate from the last Black & Mortimer or even a painting by Enki Bilal, the most expensive of the works on sale, at $ 200,000. “But there will also be much cheaper things, at $ 1,500 or $ 2,000”, insists the collector. From Claire Bretécher, recently deceased, to Moebius, via Peyo, Jacques Martin, Juilliard, Franquin (full list here: https://www.art9us.com/), all the diversity of the 9th Franco-Belgian art is represented.

More and more collectors of comics in Europe: “When I started collecting 20 years ago, there were two galleries in Paris, notes Philippe Labaune. Itoday there are seven. " But in the United States, the environment remains more confidential. "When there is a sale in Paris we generally know that if there is a telephone auction from New York it is me and if it is from Los Angeles it is George Lucas or Steven Spielberg …" The two American filmmakers are both great European comic book enthusiasts and collectors, who inspired their universes (Valerian by Jean-Claude Mézières for the director of Star Wars or Moebius’s work for Spielberg).

Quickly, Philippe Labaune has made a name for himself in this small milieu and when, two years ago, he stopped his previous professional activity in finance, he decided to launch himself totally into comics, by creating Art9, to promote European comics in the land of comics, the "classics" but also the young authors. “From this first exhibition we will show Mathieu Bablé, a young French author who is going up ”.

An avid collector, Philippe Labaune will show some of the works he owns during the exhibition, but there is no question of selling them: "I sometimes exchange coins, which is often done between collectors, but I never sell." You don't get rid of your childhood like that…