Cartoon museum forced to auction early Mickey Mouse drawings to pay off debts.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Kathy Bushouse and Jennifer Peltz

BOCA RATON, Fla. _ In what seems a last-ditch effort to save the financially troubled International Museum of Cartoon Art at Mizner Park, the museum's founders have decided to auction off its most prized possession, the 36-panel storyboard of the 1928 Walt Disney short "Plane Crazy," to pay off a number of debts.

Museum experts say such a move can undermine an institution's image as a caretaker of cultural history.

"As a general rule, it would be very difficult for (a museum) to justify, as a public trust, selling collections for the purpose of maintenance and operation," said Calvin Smith, who chairs the museum studies department at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

"That is a very sticky wicket."

The Cartoon Museum is saddled with $950,000 in late payments on a $3 million mortgage loan from SunTrust Bank.

Last year, SunTrust had tried to take possession of the...

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