Original Donkey Kong Flyer Art Sells for $329,400, a Record

The original artwork for the U.S. promotional flyer of Nintendo's 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong has sold at auction for $329,400 (about 51.8 million yen), setting a record for video game-related art. The pre-sale estimate was roughly 15.7 to 23.6 million yen, so the final price came in far above expectations.

What was sold

The auction was run by Landry Pop Auctions (LPA). The piece was painted by Zavier Leslie Cabarga in acrylic on celluloid, with the background done in ink and airbrush. Characters are drawn on transparent film, the same technique used for animation cels. It measures 50 cm by 42 cm and has trim marks in all four corners.

The scene comes from the game's first stage: Donkey Kong is dropping barrels, while Jumpman, as Mario was then known, signals with his hands and expression that he is coming. Kong looks flustered, and Pauline appears dizzy and sweating.

How it survived

The seller is Donna Darbous, who oversaw advertising and promotional materials at Nintendo of America in 1981. During an office expansion she found the artwork among material being thrown away, and with her boss's permission she kept it along with a few other items. She stayed on through the Super NES and Game Boy eras, helping set standards for characters and printed materials.

About 40 years after leaving Nintendo, she found the piece inside a coffee table while sorting her belongings. She said it brought back an era when the idea of the video game industry collided with the birth of the technology, and decided it should not stay buried, so she contacted LPA.

Cabarga, born in 1954 in New York, works as an illustrator, cartoonist, animator, font designer and publishing designer. His portfolio includes cereal packaging in a similar style, magazine covers and Sony product illustrations.

The result shows how pre-release materials once treated as disposable can become valuable collectibles once the product behind them becomes iconic.