Heritage Auctions closed out its 2025 Animation calendar in emphatic fashion as the December 12-15 The Art of Disney Signature^® Auction realized $2.62 million, with all 1,372 lots sold. The four-day sale underscored both the emotional resonance and market strength of classic animation art at a moment when Heritage’s Animation & Anime Art category celebrates its most successful year ever.

Leading the auction was A Charlie Brown Christmas 3-Cel Sequence Setup with Pan Master Background which realized $102,000, the highest price ever achieved for a Peanuts animation cel. Featuring Charlie Brown carrying his tiny Christmas tree in the final moments of the 1965 holiday classic, the sequential master setup marked a fitting tribute to the special’s 60th anniversary and served as the emotional and financial centerpiece of the sale.

The December result arrived amid a historic run for Heritage’s Animation & Anime Art category. Earlier this year, Heritage set the record for the highest-grossing Disney Animation Art auction with its August Art of Disney event at $5.19 million, followed in October by the highest-grossing Anime and non-Disney animation auction at $3.2 million. With total departmental sales now exceeding $17 million in 2025, Heritage has secured a second consecutive record-breaking year in the category.

“This year has shown, beyond any doubt, the depth and breadth of demand for animation art across every era and every collecting focus,” says Jim Lentz, Heritage Auctions’ Vice President of Animation & Anime Art. “From Charlie Brown to Walt Disney himself, collectors are responding to the history and the creative genius these works carry.”

The most recent auction unfolded across four days with 100% sell-through, drawing 3,266 bidders from around the world and presenting material spanning Disney’s earliest years through the Renaissance and beyond. While the Peanuts record deserves headlines, the sale was equally defined by its exceptional concentration of Walt Disney-signed material, masterworks by legendary Disney artists and strong results for Disney Renaissance-era production art.

Among the Walt Disney-signed highlights was a rare, one-of-a-kind Key Master setup from Cinderella, featuring a production cel and Key Master background signed by Walt Disney, which brought $21,600. A Fantasia “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” Mickey Mouse as Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Broom production cel Courvoisier setup accompanied by a framed award letter bearing Walt Disney’s handwritten dedication to a young contest winner realized $9,600.

“This was an extraordinary grouping of Walt Disney-signed works,” says Lentz. “Collectors understand how seldom these pieces surface, and when they do, the opportunity to acquire them is about as close as one can come to holding animation history in their hands.”

The auction also showcased the enduring appeal of the great artists who shaped Disney’s visual language. Works by Disney Legend Mary Blair performed strongly, led by a charming Alice in Wonderland Alice and Dinah concept/color key painting from 1951 that sold for $28,000. Blair’s vibrant “It’s a Small World” concept/color key painting realized $26,400, while her rare early Winnie the Pooh development painting of Tigger, created decades before the studio acquired the film rights, brought $23,400.

Additional highlights from Disney’s legendary artists included a signed Sleeping Beauty concept painting by Eyvind Earle depicting Prince Phillip, Samson and Maleficent as a dragon, which sold for $18,000, and an oversized Cruella De Vil character development board from 101 Dalmatians by Marc Davis, one of Walt Disney’s famed Nine Old Men, which realized $21,600. A Don Rosa painting of Uncle Scrooge’s iconic Money Bin achieved $36,000, underscoring continued demand for classic Disney comic art.

Reaching even further back into animation history, a rare original animation drawing of Gertie the Dinosaur from Winsor McCay’s groundbreaking 1914 short realized $9,600. Widely regarded as one of the earliest animated characters to display a distinct personality, Gertie’s appearance in the sale provided a compelling historical counterpoint to Disney’s later achievements.

Disney Renaissance-era material proved equally strong, led by two substantial storyboard groupings from The Lion King, both by story artist Thom Enriquez. A group of 277 original storyboards and studio prints realized $33,600, while a second grouping of 153 storyboards brought $28,800. Additional Renaissance and late-20th-century highlights included a Who Framed Roger Rabbit production cel featuring Roger and Jessica Rabbit, signed by voice actor Charles Fleischer, which sold for $9,000, and a Little Mermaid production cel depicting Ariel and Flounder that achieved $10,800.

Together, these results reflected the wide-ranging appeal of animation art, from early hand-drawn innovation to the films that defined modern Disney for a new generation of fans.

“This auction captured everything that makes animation art such a powerful collecting category,” says Lentz. “It’s joyful, it’s nostalgic and it connects generations. Seeing collectors respond so strongly across Peanuts, Disney legends and Renaissance-era material tells us this market is as healthy and as passionate as ever.”