McCartney halts sale of sketches

A set of drawings by Sir Paul McCartney of a cartoon mouse have been withdrawn from sale after a legal challenge by the former Beatle.

The sketches, made in the 1970s as prototypes for a part-animated film, were due to be auctioned yesterday by the daughter of the animator Eric Wylam, who died in 1997. Maggie Thornton said they had been in her family for almost 40 years: "My father was given a pile of scrap paper covered in rough drawings and I always believed they belonged to him."

But lawyers for Sir Paul stepped in on the eve of the sale claiming that he had no idea that Wylam had retained the drawings. The designs for the unreleased film, The Bruce McMouse Show, had been expected to fetch £25,000.