The illustration was on the debut edition of the 1997 novel.
Thomas Taylor was the artist who painted the image.
It depicts Harry Potter on Platform 934, awaiting his first ride on the Hogwarts Express.
An art handler holds Thomas Taylor’s original cover artANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Taylor completed the painting in just two days using concentrated watercolors on cold-pressed watercolor paper with black pencil.
He was paid $650 for his efforts.
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A first edition copy ofHarry Potter and the Philosophers Stonewas the previous record-holder.
It sold for $421,000 at Heritage Auctions in Dallas in 2021.
Taylors illustration sold for almost four-times the expected amount of between $400,000 and $600,000.
Sothebys said it was the highest pre-sale estimate ever placed on an item of any Harry Potter-related work.
