Auction Bids Top Expectations for ‘Beauty, Beast’ Cels
- Share via
Prices regularly topped expectations for original background paintings and specially created cels from Disney’s record-breaking animated feature “Beauty and the Beast” at an auction conducted by Sotheby’s in Hollywood on Saturday afternoon. All 249 lots found buyers for a sale total of $1,255,815.
Unlike previous sales of Disney artwork, none of the cels actually appeared in the film: “Beauty and the Beast” was electronically colored using a computer process that won a technical Academy Award earlier this year. The cels were traced from animators’ drawings and matched to backgrounds used in the feature.
A piece of artwork created in honor of lyricist Howard Ashman brought the day’s highest price: A private collector paid $44,000, more than 12 times the estimate of $2,500-3,500, for a setup of six of the film’s major characters in the Beast’s ballroom. Ashman died of AIDS-related complications in March, 1991, and the proceeds from this lot will be donated to an AIDS program designated by his family.
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
