The original cover for the 1942 Tintin book The Shooting Star sold at auction for more than $2.8 million, just shy of the record price paid last year for a piece of Hergé’s art.

Comic book dealers Petits Papiers-Huberty-Breyne told Agence France-Presse the yellowing art was purchased by a European investor who "is neither Belgian nor French." No other details about the buyer's identity were disclosed.

The Shooting Star cover is one of just five that remains in the hands of private collectors. Most of  Hergé’s work is held by Moulinsart, the Brussels-based organization established in 1987 by the cartoonist’s widow Fanny Rodwell

The 10th volume of The Adventures of Tintin, The Shooting Star follows Tintin, his faithful dog Snowy and his friend Captain Haddock as they take part in a scientific expedition to the Arctic Ocean to find a meteorite before it’s uncovered by a rival team.