Original Art of Mickey Mouse Fails to Sell

The purported first drawings of Mickey Mouse--said to be worth more than $3 million--failed to sell at auction Saturday, leaving the museum that owns them scrambling for other ways to pay its debts.

The six-page, 36-panel storyboard was drawn for the Walt Disney cartoon “Plane Crazy” in 1928, International Museum of Cartoon Art founder Mort Walker said. In the 9-by-12-inch sheets, the rodent reads the book “How to Fly,” builds a plane, flies it and crashes.

The museum offered the drawings--the first of the cartoon character, according to Walker--and hundreds of other items for sale to defray nearly $2 million in debt, most owed to a bank that holds the museum’s mortgage.

Bidding for the storyboard, which was valued at $3.2 million to $3.7 million, started at $400,000 during an auction at the New York Historical Society.

The price reached $800,000, but the sale was put on hold because the credibility of the online bidder could not be established, said Arlan Ettinger, president of the auction house Guernsey’s.

Ettinger said Guernsey’s was trying to contact the person who made the next highest bid, $700,000.

“We’re still in trouble. It’s going to be tough,” Walker said. “I’m very disappointed.”