A UK artist accidentally destroyed rare first editions of comics worth 50,000 pounds after he used them to create a papier-mache sculpture without realising their value.
The sculpture, called Paperboy, was created by Andrew Vickers, 49, from Sheffield, who found the stash of valuable comics in a skip.
One of the Marvel comics - pasted to the right leg - was a 1963 first edition of The Avengers, alone worth 10,000 pounds, 'The Sun' reported.
"I thought they were worthless - they were in a skip," Vickers said.
He found the comics near his home and reckoned they were ideal for a statue he was making for a local art gallery superhero exhibition.
He had already made the chickenwire frame for his crimefighter character Paperboy.
"When I saw the cover of Avengers No1 on the inside right leg I did a double take. Then I saw others. I've told him to call me first if he finds anything else in a skip," said Comics dealer Steve Eyre, 52.
Vickers works under the name Stoneface and usually carves out of boulders.
"There's no use crying over spilt milk - the comics now have no value at all," Vickers said.
"It would have been cheaper for him to have made the sculpture out of Italian marble," Eyre said.
