“Dark Kingdom,” the iconic Frank Frazetta painting that served as the cover of Molly Hatchet’s 1979 album Flirtin’ With Disaster, sold at Heritage Auctions last week for a record $6 million, Ultimate Classic Rock reports.
According to the outlet, Flirtin’ With Disaster was a high-water mark of Southern hard rock and a milestone for the band, ranking as their bestselling LP with US sales exceeding two million.
It writes that songs like the title track and “Whiskey Man” are mainstays in the group’s oeuvre, but part of the LP’s success can surely be attributed to Frazetta’s masterful artwork, which depicts a heavily armored warrior standing on a pile of bones.
Although the piece is most commonly associated with Molly Hatchet, “Dark Kingdom” first served as the cover of Karl Edward Wagner’s 1976 novel Dark Crusade.
The $6 million sale price is the highest of the fantasy art genre and Frazetta’s catalogue, surpassing his former record-holder, “Egyptian Queen,” which fetched $5.4 million at a 2019 auction. Other Frazetta works to command seven-figure sums include “Death Dealer VI” ($1.79 million in 2018), “A Princess of Mars” ($1.2 million in 2020) and “At the Earth’s Core” ($1.075 million in 2016).
