[originaltext] The International Museum of Cartoon Art says it is reluctantly

The International Museum of Cartoon Art says it is reluctantly auctioning its prize exhibit -- purportedly the first drawings of Miekey Mouse -- to help pay debts. The muse um will offer the drawings and hundreds of other items for sale to defray nearly 2 million in debt, most owed to a bank which holds the museum’s mortgage.
   The 36 - panel storyboard from the 1928 Walt Disney cartoon "Plane Crazy" was the first drawing ever made of Mickey Mouse, according to Mort Walker, founder of the museum. The storyboard is valued at between 3.2 million and 3.7 million. The sale will include animation cells from the 1937  Disney movie  "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs",  including one showing dwarfs Doc and Dopey which is expected to fetch 20,000 to 24,000. Other items range from original comic strips from the 1930s to editorial cartoons from the New York Daily News and animation cells or comic strips of such characters as Bugs Bunny, Charlie Brown, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace and Prince Val iant. In all, more than 600 items, some donated and some coming from the museum’s collection of 200,000 drawings, will be put on the block Saturday at the New York Historical Society. Earlier, Walker and the museum, which attracts 50,000 people each year, fought a legal battle to keep Sun Trust Bank from taking the "Plane Crazy" storyboard as collateral. The suit was settled in December when the bank gave the museum more time to come up with pay off overdue mortgage payments. But publicity about the museum’ s troubles failed to spur substantial donations, leading to the auction. Walker acknowledges that selling the Mickey Mouse drawings he fought so hard to keep is painful. "But I don’ t think the other work will bring a million dollars," he said. Walker rebutted criticism that, by auctioning off some of its most- prized holdings, the museum is ignoring its mission as a permanent repository for valuable works. "A lot of people frown on the fact that the museums sell off their inventory, although everybody does it," he said, "It’s basically when you’ re not going to be able to stay open if you don’ t do it."
   The museum was founded in Connecticut in 1972. It moved to Boca Raton in 1990 from Rye Brook, New York, and opened its current building in 1996. After that, a pro posed partnership with Florida Atlantic University, in which the university would have paid off the museum’ s debts, fell through. The museum has since talked to other schools and arts groups about sharing its building. Several possible partnerships are being examined, including one with the muse um’ s new neighbor, the Boca Raton Museum of Art.