A copy of the comic book that introduced the world to Superman in 1938 has been sold to a collector for $15 million.
The private sale of a high-grade copy of Action Comics No. 1 was announced on Friday. Fewer than 100 copies are known to exist, said Vincent Zurzolo, the president of Metropolis Collectibles and ComicConnect, which negotiated the sale.
The sale price makes the issue one of the most expensive comics ever sold. The auction record remains with Superman No. 1, from 1939, which sold for $9.12 million in November.
“This is the advent of the golden age of comics, and Action Comics No. 1 is the holy grail of holy grails,” Mr. Zurzolo said in an interview. Action Comics No. 1 is widely considered to be the first American comic book to include superheroes and contributed to a rapid increase in the genre’s popularity in the mid-20th century.
Both the buyer and seller asked to remain anonymous.
The history of this particular copy, which originally sold for 10 cents, is a saga of its own. In 1996, Nicolas Cage purchased it from Metropolis Collectibles and ComicConnect for $150,000, Mr. Zurzolo said.
In 2000, the comic was stolen from Mr. Cage’s home during a party and remained missing until 2011, when it was discovered in a storage unit in California, Mr. Zurzolo said.
During the 11 years it was missing, the issue “skyrocketed in value,” Stephen Fishler, the chief executive of Metropolis and ComicConnect, said in a news release.
The comic was returned to Mr. Cage, who sold it for $2.2 million at auction.
“If this wasn’t stolen, it would have been sold with the rest of his collection much earlier and would have sold for far less,” Mr. Zurzolo said. “In essence, because of the theft and recovery, Nick’s windfall on this comic book was enormous.”
The Certified Guaranty Company, which specializes in authenticating and grading collectibles, gave the issue a grade of 9.0, meaning the comic is well-preserved but has minor defects.
It joins several other comics that have fetched multimillion-dollar prices at auction and in private sales. At least eight copies of Action Comics No. 1 have now sold for more than $1 million, according to the C.G.C.
Hannah Ziegler is a general assignment reporter for The Times, covering topics such as crime, business, weather, pop culture and online trends.
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