Animation Artwork Brings In $1 Million at Christie’s Auction

A sale of 270 lots of cels, backgrounds, drawings and preliminary sketches from animated films--virtually all of it from the Disney studio--sold at Christie’s Thursday night for more than $1 million, breaking all records for animation artwork.

An unnamed Canadian buyer paid $135,000 for a black-and-white cel and watercolor background from Disney’s “The Orphan’s Benefit” (1934)--more than twice the previous record of $58,000, set last June. The 10-by-12-inch sheet of celluloid shows a group of jeering little mice who resemble a miniature Mickey. The accompanying background depicts their seats in a theater balcony. The estimated presale price was $12,000 to $18,000.

The same buyer paid an additional $45,000 for a cel and background of Mickey and one of the spirits from “Lonesome Ghosts,” although both were made for a 1959 publicity campaign rather than the original 1937 cartoon.

A second cel and background from “Orphan” showing Mickey calling out from behind a piece of scenery went to “a Hollywood figure” for $110,000. The 1934 cartoon has been out of theatrical distribution since Disney released the Technicolor remake in 1941.

An 11 1/2x29-inch watercolor of the menacing trees from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) sold for $34,000, a record for an animation background, and nearly three times the presale estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. A pencil drawing of Mickey Mouse being lowered into a cannibal pot from “Trader Mickey” (1932) set a record for an animation drawing at $11,000: Its value had been estimated at $1,000 to $1,500.

One of the most unusual lots in the sale also became one of the few pieces to sell for less than its preliminary estimate. A series of 29 “thumbnail” sketches in watercolor and pastels for the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence of “Fantasia” (predicted value $15,000 to $20,000) brought only $14,000.