Pierre Lambert.

Animator, writer, collector and artist, Pierre Lambert has a true love and respect for animation, and is considered one of the most important animation experts in the world. He is responsible for assessing artwork and valuing pieces for animation auctions at Christie's in New York, London and Los Angeles. I recently had dinner with Pierre at Lespinasse, an elegant French restaurant located in New York City's St. Regis Hotel, while Pierre was visiting from his native France. Over rich, delicious food (Pierre knows the chef well, and we were treated to a flurry of courses), we talked about the market for the animation auctions on which he consults. Our conversation went a little something like this...

Pierre Lambert: I know the main collectors of animation art very well. Many are friends. I visit all the big collections in America, in France, in Germany. I know what artwork exists. It's very important to know what exists to give a true estimation for an animation auction. Because if you find a piece, and it is the only one that exists in the world, of course, it will be very expensive. If there are tons and tons and tons, the value will be much lower. My job is to give estimations, and to give information about the artwork - if it is true artwork, the background, the care of the artwork, if it was restored, if it's a key set-up, an exact image of the movie, an exact frame...

Deborah Reber: Who makes up the animation market? Who are the people buying the art at the auctions?

PL: The market began at Christie's. The first auction was an auction of only Disney animation. It was the collection of a publicity artist who worked at the Disney studios in the early 1940s. This man understood that animation art would be very valuable in the future as "art," and asked Disney if he could take some artwork from the studios. He had the most important collection in the world - art from Pinocchio, Snow White, and Mickey Mouse films. He sold part of his collection in 1984, and it marked the beginning of the market. Some of the Mickey Mouse and Pinocchio artwork went for $20,000 in 1984. Before then there were some galleries that had a few drawings, and only a few collectors in America, but the market began mainly with this first sale.

DR: Did that auction set a precedent for future animation auctions?

PL: Well, the market began very strong because the collection was so exceptional. At first, the other auctions weren't so good because they didn't find many wonderful pieces. But year after year, Christie's and Sotheby's sold nice artwork, but piece-by-piece. But the market grew. Today the world record for a piece of animation art is U.S. $260,000, for a black and white Mickey Mouse, an early Mickey, and U.S. $220,000 for a very nice Snow White key set-up of the final sequence.

DR: That's the overall record or the Christie's record?

PL: Overall. (pauses) So you have two markets. You have the crazy collectors who have a lot of money, who can spend a lot of money, like Steven Spielberg. At the end of the 1980's, there were a few collectors who could spend thousands and thousands of dollars. And then you have the regular market, which begins at one or two thousand dollars, and goes to $20,000 dollars. In this range, you have between 500 and 4,000 collectors.