Original ‘Harry Potter’ cover art sells for $1.9m at auction

NEW YORK – The original watercolour illustration for the first edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” — the book that introduced the world to the young bespectacled wizard — sold for $1.9-million on Wednesday.The artwork becomes “the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold at auction,” auction house Sotheby’s said in a statement. “The illustration was chased by four bidders on the phone and online for nearly ten minutes before selling to applause.”The work by Thomas Taylor, who was just 23 years old in 1997 when he painted the iconic image of the young boy with the…