Neal Adams’ Savage Sword of Conan Painting and the Theft That Didn’t Happen

The cover above is to the Savage Sword of Conan #2 and was created by the legendary Neal Adams.  It’s always been one of my favorite Conan and Neal Adams’ covers.

I had the good fortune to see the original painting at an OrlandoCon. The year was 1978 or ’79 (to the best of my memory). Mike Kott, a  buddy of mine, had it on display for sale.  He was asking $10,000.00 for it.  Although that was a ton of money back then (and is still a lot today), the painting in person was so nice, it had more than one person saying, “If I was a rich man…”

I’d see Mike Kott on a fairly regular basis.  He’d come into Jim Ivey’s Cartoon Museum or over to my apartment (we had a weekly card game) or I’d go by his place.  It was on one of those get-togethers that Mike said his house had a break-in and thieves had made off with some cash (not a lot).  Nothing else had been taken.  Mike said that they had to have seen the painting but obviously hadn’t known the value of the art.  Not long after that Mike sold the painting.

$10,000.00 was a small fortune back then.  As to what the painting is worth today… I won’t venture a guess, but I will say that Neal Adams gets $50 for his autograph and fans line up all day long.