‘Fantasia’ Drawing Auctioned in Burbank for Record $4,300

A drawing from the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940) sold for $4,300 at an auction in Burbank Monday night, believed to be a record for an animation drawing.

The 11x15-inch drawing featured a large image of Tchernabog, the black god of Ukrainian folklore, rendered in red, orange, blue and black pencil by animator Vladimir (Bill) Tytla. Critics rank Tytla’s animation of Tchernabog among the finest work ever done at the Disney studio.

Of the 261 lots in the sale conducted by animation art dealer Howard Lowery at the Burbank Hilton, 253 found buyers, for a total of $368,000.

Although none of the works in the auction were the black-and-white cel and background set-ups from the early Disney shorts that command six-figure prices in New York, the sale confirmed both the importance of the West Coast market for animation art and the stability of prices for cels, drawings, backgrounds and preliminary artwork in the $500 to $4,000 range.

Cels from the Disney features constituted the bulk of the material in the sale, but bidding was brisk for drawings and artwork from other cartoon studios, notably MGM. A cel and background set-up from Tex Avery’s “One Cab’s Family” (MGM, 1952) brought $4,700, while 27 assorted drawings from six Avery shorts sold for $1,700, considerably higher than the pre-sale estimate of $800-$1,200.

A cel and background of Chilly Willy and the nasty dog from Walter Lantz’s “The Legend of Rockabye Point” (1955) brought $850. A cel of John Lennon dressed as a member of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts’ Club Band from George Dunning’s “Yellow Submarine” (1968) sold for $2,400, double its estimated price of $900-$1,200. In 1968, cels from “Yellow Submarine” were sold in bookstores for $2 apiece.

“Some pretty fabulous animation was created at the Walter Lantz, Warner Bros. and MGM studios,” said Lowery. “As people become exposed to their films, artwork from these studios will continue to rise in value.”