NEW YORK — The timid and lovable Piglet famously asks in the beloved children’s book, Winnie-the-Pooh, “We’ll be friends forever, won’t we Pooh?” to which Pooh replied, “Even longer.” This quote perfectly describes the relationship that millions of readers have had with the beloved books of A.A. Milne for more than 90 years.
DALLAS – One of the most iconic and important pinup images ever created, Alberto Vargas’s Mara Corday, True Girl, February 1952, sold for $100,000 to lead Heritage Auctions’ April 30 Illustration Art auction to $2.2 million in total sales. The model in the image, Mara Corday, is captured in the signature V-leg pose that was Vargas’s calling card in her second sitting for the artist – he lost the rights to the first, and other images he signed as “Varga,” in a years-long legal battle with Esquire magazine. Esquire sued the artist for the works signed “Vargas” in True but ultimately failed. This win and the publication of his nine True Girls, including the present work, revitalized the artist and his career.