Harry Potter illustration fetches nearly $2 million at auction

Harry Potter fans, Disney adults, Pokémon fans, all of which are willing to spend vast amounts of money on their favourite IPs. However, someone really went the extra mile for the Wizarding World recently, when an original watercolour illustration of the first cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone went to auction at Sotheby's.

The piece was expected to generate between $400-$600 thousand, but instead managed to garner $1.9 million at auction. The identity of the buyer was not revealed, but the bidding war took around 10 minutes to complete.

The illustration has gone up for auction before, back in 2001 before the book series was complete. It sold for around $108,000 in today's money, a mere pittance compared to the sale price today.