An original page of Tintin drawings signed by Hergé sold at auction Saturday in Paris for nearly $2.9 million, setting a new world record for comic art.

Dating to 1937, the double-page spread featuring the boy reporter, Snowy and other characters (above) was created for the inside covers of Tintin books published between 1937 and 1958. According to Agence France-Press, the piece was purchased by an American collector following "15 minutes of furious bidding" at the Artcurial devoted entirely to the Belgian artist and his most famous creation.

Before Saturday's sale, the record price for comic art was $1.6 million paid in 2012 for another Tintin piece: a rare original Indian ink-and-gouache cover for 1932′s Tintin in America. Only five are known to exist.

"I thought only these inside cover pages could beat the record set by Tintin in America in 2012. This has happened today with this exceptional drawing," Eric Leroy, Artcurial's cartoon expert, told AFP. "This new world record confirms the place of cartoon art as a major art form."