Rare Superman Comic Sells for $15 Million After Recovery from Nicolas Cage

A Unique Copy of Superman's First Adventures Sells for a Record Sum

A rare copy of the 1938 comic that introduced Superman to the world has been sold to an anonymous collector for a record-breaking $15 million (£11.2 million). The private sale of the Action Comics No. 1, which was recently stolen from actor Nicolas Cage and recovered after over a decade, was announced on Friday.

The previous record for a comic book sale was $9.12 million, set in November when a pristine copy of Superman No. 1 was auctioned. Both sales far exceed the comic's original price of 10 cents, equivalent to approximately $2.25 today.

Superman's debut is part of several stories included in Action Comics No. 1, which is considered foundational to the superhero genre. It is estimated that there are fewer than 100 copies of this comic in existence.

The sale was mediated by Metropolis Collectibles/Comic Connect from New York, which stated that both the comic's owner and the buyer wish to remain anonymous. The broker noted that this copy was rated nine out of ten by the Certified Guaranty Company, specializing in the authentication of collectible items—making it the highest-rated copy to date.

The comic's value has surged partly due to its connection with Hollywood star Nicolas Cage. He purchased this copy in 1996 for $150,000—a record at the time. However, the comic was stolen during a party at Cage's home in 2000, and it was only found in 2011 in a storage unit in California.

“In those 11 years, its value exploded. The thief made a lot of money for Nicolas Cage by stealing it,” said Stephen Fishler, CEO of Metropolis/ComicConnect. Cage was reunited with the copy, and six months later sold it at auction for $2.2 million.

Fishler compared the comic's history to the bold theft of the famous Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris in 1911, which transformed the then-little-known painting into a global icon. “The recovery of the painting turned the Mona Lisa from a great work of Da Vinci into a global symbol—and that's exactly what Action Comics No. 1 represents: a symbol of American pop culture.”