ART

An extremely rare drawing of Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney has been bought for $110,000 by a private Canadian collector, making it the third most expensive animation artwork ever sold, according to Christie’s East auction gallery. Only six drawings of Mickey by his creator are known to exist, and all the others are postage-stamp size. The sketch sold to the anonymous collector is 13 3/4 inches by 14 1/2 inches. Disney drew the work in 1935 on the guest book of an unidentified film director and his wife and signed his signature. Joshua Arfer, Christie’s animation art specialist, said that “a genuine Walt Disney signature is pure gold for an animation collector, but his Mickey is platinum.” Christie’s handled the private sale between the director’s widow and the collector, who is said to own more than 100 pieces of original animation art work material valued at more than $1 million. The price was eight times that paid recently for a Walt Disney Studio artist’s pencil drawing sketch from “The Mail Pilot,” a 1933 film. In November, two rare black and white cells from Walt Disney’s 1934 “The Orphan’s Benefit,” captured record prices of $148,500 and $121,000.