Milo Manara's controversial 2014 cover for Spider-Woman #1 sold for over $37,000 after being put up for auction in late September.

The cover was auctioned off at Heritage Auctions' European Comic Art event between Oct. 3 and Oct. 4. The price of the item more than doubled since CBR first noted the auction, going from $15,500 to $37,500.

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The cover was criticized upon its release by comic-themed sites and the general media for its sexualization of Jessica Drew. Marvel still published the cover but moved the title of the series to top of the page, covering the most offensive aspect of the drawing.

At the time, Marvel Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort told CBR that "I think that the people who are upset about that cover have a point, at least in how the image relates to them. By that same token, Milo Manara has been working as a cartoonist since 1969, and what he does hasn't materially changed in all that time. So when we say 'Manara cover,' his body of work indicates what sort of thing he's going to do."

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"Whether you like it or not – and, clearly, many did not – this image is now part of comics lore and pop culture," said Olivier Delflas, Heritage Auctions' European-based Consignment Director for Comics & Original Arts. The item received 16,952 views and had 59 bids.

Marvel’s then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso apologized, saying that "We apologize – I apologize – for the mixed messaging that this variant caused."

Manara also responded to the controversy. "By reading on the Internet, I saw that the criticisms have two different reasons," he said. "A is the side erotic and sexy, the other is the anatomic error. Now, on the incompetence in the drawing I don't know what to say. Let's say that I try to do my best for 40 years. Nobody is perfect, and I can make mistakes; simply, I am a professional, then I do my best."

"On the erotic side, on the other hand, I found the thing a little surprising," he continued. "Apart from the fact that there is a compulsory prerequisite to do: it seems to me that both in the United States and in the rest of the world there are things much more important and serious you have to deal with. The facts of Ferguson, or the drama of Ebola."

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Source: Heritage Auctions