Why This Frank Frazetta Painting Just Set A Crazy New Record At Auction

These are hard times for the art market. According to Artnet News, the overall market decreased 8.8% between January 1 and June 30, 2025, with the average sale per lot down 6.5% to $24,224 – trends that have kept the 8-figure “masterpieces” mostly on the sidelines.

Hah! Conan the Barbarian laughs at your decadent “art market” trends! An oil painting by Frank Frazetta depicting the legendary warrior battling a murderous ape, originally the cover to a 1967 Lancer/Ace paperback, just sold for $13.5 million (including buyers premium) to an undisclosed buyer at auction, according to Dalas-based Heritage Auctions, which sold the piece along with hundreds of other collectible comics, illustrations and works of fantasy art.

Frazetta (1928-2010) was and remains hugely popular for his oil paintings and drawings depicting Conan, Tarzan, characters from The Lord of The Rings, famous monsters, and his own creations like Death Dealer, most of which appeared as book and magazine covers, posters, album covers and book illustrations from the early 60s through the mid-1990s. Several of his oil paintings already set records, mostly in the mid-seven figure range, but $13.5 million represents a stratospheric new benchmark, more than double the previous high.

“When we divided up the collection back in 2013 [among Frazetta’s five children], I told my mom, aunt, and uncles that the prices should be high—really high,” said Sara Frazetta, Frank’s granddaughter and founder of Frazetta Girls, a company that sells and licenses his work, via email earlier this week. “My grandfather’s work deserves nothing less. In my mind, I always pictured the number 12 for Conan the Man-Ape, so when the result not only met but surpassed that, it was exactly what I always believed would happen.”

Sara Frazetta said she is happy to see the culture of the art world shifting to embrace illustration and commercial art (work for which the artist is paid in advance), long the poor relation compared to fine art (art created by the artist for subsequent display and sale). This result, along with other eye-watering totals realized at Heritage and other auctions in contrast to the general downward trend elsewhere in the art market, flips that on its head.

“For too long, my grandfather’s work was categorized as commercial, even though he poured every ounce of his genius into it,” she said. “And this one is Conan. No other subject is more synonymous with Frank Frazetta. His Conan images shaped how generations visualize the character. That makes this painting both historically important and emotionally resonant.”

British artist Liam Sharp, who is currently drawing Conan’s adventures in The Savage Sword of Conan (Titan Comics), agrees. “As pulp artists we’re not considered ‘fine’ artists, and yet often our skill sets and aspirations are more akin with artists from the Renaissance and Romantic era – work that has to an extent lost favor in elite modern art circles,” he said in an email interview. “We dream of creating works like the Pre-Raphalites, and Conan offers us subject matter that is relatable to classical mythology. On top of that, it remains work for everybody, not just elites – though, of course, the price tag for that Frazetta painting has elevated it to unheard of heights now!”

Despite, or perhaps because of, his penchant for fantastic subject matter, Frazetta had the gift of creating visual worlds that packed lots of story into a single image loaded with mystery and atmosphere, in the manner of revered old masters like Rembrandt or Caravaggio.

“Frazetta was, of course, a master of composition,” said Sharp. “His paintings draw the eye right into the heart of them. He could also capture motion with great facility – and that’s certainly there in the painting that just sold. But there is a gravity and sense of place too. This is a brutish land where lives are lost and forgotten in a moment. You can almost smell his protagonists – the leather, the sweat, the iron in the blood… They’re alive, despite (or perhaps because of) the intentional distortions in the figure work.”

In an age where escapist entertainment of all sorts is commanding mindshare and wallet-share, it is unsurprising that deep pocketed collectors are bidding his masterpieces into the stratosphere. It is also possible that the opening of several new museums dedicated to pop culture art, including the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art slated to open this fall in Los Angeles, may be fueling the bidding for blue chip pieces like this.

Whatever the case, it is difficult to argue that comic and illustration art, which have continued their winning streak since the pandemic, are now the market trendsetters, eclipsing most other contemporary genres.

“Greatness stands the test of time,” said Sara Frazetta. “[Frank’s] art was never tied to trends or fads. His work feels as alive today as it did decades ago. That’s why his art continues to inspire new generations, no matter how much the culture shifts.”