BURBANK : Disney Cartoon Cels to Be Sold at Auction

More than 300 animation cels from classic Walt Disney Studios cartoons as well as some other rare art--worth about $2 million--will be put up for auction Sunday by collector Howard Lowery.

“There are some first-rate pieces from a number of very important Disney films,” Lowery said. “But what’s really unique is some of the works from the more obscure cartoons.”

Included in the auction--which will likely draw many people who come to watch instead of buy--are four animated cels by Ub Iwerks, a cartoonist who was the co-creator of Mickey Mouse with Walt Disney.

The works on auction are from cartoons he produced from an independent studio he ran for 10 years after he left Disney in the 1930s.

“Balloon land,” by Iwerks will be one of the works on auction, as well as some rare originals from MGM’s Tom and Jerry cartoons from the 1940s.

“It’s wonderful to see the work from some of the smaller studios,” said Lowery, who has been collecting and auctioning cartoon art--some of it rescued from the trash can--for more than 20 years.

He has been holding regular auctions in Burbank since December, 1989.

The auction on Sunday will include animated cels from several Disney movies such as “Plane Crazy,” from 1928 at a value of about $5,000; “Pinocchio” from 1940, valued at $20,000; “Fantasia” from 1940, valued at $10,000, and “Bambi” from 1941, valued at $12,000.

One of Lowery’s favorites is a frame of the wicked queen in the 1937 Disney film “Snow White,” which will probably sell for about $10,000. It was sold by the studio in the 1940s for about $100, Lowery said.

The studio had sold some of its cartoon art through a marketing program between 1939 and 1946. But much of the art had been thrown out after the movies were completed.

The auction will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Burbank Hilton Hotel on Hollywood Way. A preview of the work will be available at Lowery’s gallery today from 9 a.m. to noon at 3818 W. Magnolia in Burbank.