Original Sketches of The Little Prince Were Found in Switzerland
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Saint-Exupery, a pilot, mysteriously disappeared over the Mediterranean on July 31, 1944 shortly after taking off on a wartime mission. “The Little Prince,” his first and only children's book (though I am not sure that this is the correct categorization) has sold 145 million copies worldwide and been translated into 270 languages. What do you think? Do you agree with me when I say that this masterpiece is just as much for adults (if not more so) as it is for children? Le me know in the comments!
Early sketches of “The Little Prince,” the world-famous creation of French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, have been found in storage in northern Switzerland, local media and an art expert said on Aug. 15.
The drawings were purchased at auction three decades ago by Bruno Stefanini, a real estate magnate and major collector who died last year. “The Little Prince” sketches were found in good condition in a folder with other works in a building in Winterthur.
Saint-Exupery escaped to the United States after Germany’s invasion of France and it was during his exile there in 1942 that he wrote his famous book. It was first published in 1943.
The author also lived in Switzerland from 1915 to 1917 while attending boarding school in the central canton of Fribourg.
Stefanini, one of Switzerland’s largest collectors who assembled tens of thousands of works before his death, set up the Winterthur to manage his artistic holdings.
He bought the Saint-Exupery sketches at an auction in 1986 in the town of Bevaix, according to the Landbote newspaper, which first reported the discovery on Aug. 15.
The sketches include an image of The Little Prince talking to a fox, “The Tippler” sitting on his planet, and the iconic image of a boa constrictor that has just eaten an elephant.
The Winterthur museum will contact New York’s Morgan Library, where Saint-Exupery’s original sketches are held, to inform them of the discovery.
Do you find this news as fascinating as I did? I just love the story of the Little Prince and I thought I would share it with you all!
Have a lovely weekend,
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