Original Animation Returns Home to Disney

CHIBA, Japan—After almost 50 years of sitting in a janitor's closet in Japan, about 250 pieces of original Walt Disney Company animation art are being returned to the studio, the New York Times reports. According to Disney, Walt Disney himself handpicked the works — which include cels, backgrounds, preliminary paintings, and storyboard sketches — for a traveling exhibition in 1960. The show stopped at 17 department stores throughout Japan that year, after which Disney donated the art to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.

The museum gave the pieces to Chiba University, claiming they did not fit in with the permanent collection. At Chiba, a university focused primarily on science and engineering, the art ended up in a janitor's closet. Four years ago, the collection was discovered, many of the pieces having suffered damage from dampness and mold.

Restored at Disney's Animation Research Library, 200 works went back on tour in Japan in 2006, joined by an another 350 works lent by the studio. Once the exhibition, "The Art of Disney," finished touring in 2007, Chiba offered to give back the art to Disney, saying that Disney was the best place for them to remain in good condition. In response, Disney plans to give Chiba high-resolution digital copies of the works and $1 million in scholarships.

The collection includes mostly works from the film Sleeping Beauty, as well as a rare set-up from the Silly Symphony cartoon Flowers and Trees (1932), the first Technicolor cartoon and the first film to win the Oscar for animated short film.