International Museum Of Cartoon Art To Leave Florida
Due to its increasing debt, the International Museum of Cartoon Art will be leaving Mizner Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Its US$3.8 million building will be put up for sale to pay off the museum's $2 million debt and preserve its collection of more than 200,000 pieces of comic strips, editorial cartoons and other works. The museum is looking into several locations for a new home, including New York and Connecticut, where it was originally founded in 1972 by BEETLE BAILEY creator Mort Walker. The museum, which opened in 1996 in Boca Raton, never drew the crowd that its founder and city officials thought it would. "It breaks my heart to sell this beautiful building," Walker said in a statement. "From the beginning, our hope has been to find a solution that would enable the museum to retain our Mizner Park home. However, in the real world, cold financial facts take precedence over a cartoonist's cherished dream."