'Dark Knight' art breaks auction record

An iconic splash page from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns has been sold at auction for a record $448,125 (£273,431).

Pencilled by Miller and inked by Klaus Janson, the artwork depicts the Caped Crusader alongside the Carrie Kelly incarnation of Robin leaping across Gotham's skyline.

According to Bleeding Cool, the sale sets a new record for the highest amount paid for a piece of artwork from an American comic in a public sale. The previous record was shelled out for a splash page from Amazing Spider-Man #50, drawn by John Romita Sr, which fetched $88,500 (£54,000).

"Artwork from this famed series is much scarcer than anything else from the period, as demonstrated by the fact that Heritage has only offered two Dark Knight panel pages previously, along with the fact that any splash page - much less such an undeniably classic image - has never been offered at auction," said organiser Heritage Auctions in a statement issued prior to the transaction.

"This gem has been locked away in a single collection since being purchased upon the series' original publication. Unlike many pages from the series, where differences between the original art and the published version are evident, no changes were made to this artwork for publication, and the original contains no paste-ups or stats - it's pure art, just the way it appeared in print."

Previous predictions speculated that the item would raise upwards of $100,000 (£62,000).