My uncle has a cel from snowwhite of one of the 
drawfs- i think it looks loosy, but it is the 
oldest cel i have ever seen.  It was kept in good 
condition through the years in hospitable places 
and he bought it from a friend who had gotten it 
from his dad who worked for the studio, 
authenticity papers and all blah blah.  Well 
anyway he keeps it stored in his safe, i mean big 
four feet wide by eight feet tall in his back 
room, with other important papers.  Well i got to 
look at it and even though it is really old and 
really expensive.  He was embarressed about the 
price he paid and so has never told me how much 
it cost him.  Well it looks pretty good.  Some of 
the black lines are faded but the colors still 
look great.


As for anime they probably use similiar materials 
if not better since they are new type of paints 
and such.  The xerox lines do fade but those can 
be fixed but the colors on the cel should last 
for a long time, possibly two generations.  Hey 
even the mona lisa is falling apart though.  The 
only thing i know that is semi permanant is 
stonehenge.  So we can keep them safe and hope 
for the best and like other pieces of art, like 
the mona lisa and other works by leonardo devinic 
and picasso - we can get them fixed if they do 
start to go bad.  a day will probably come when 
about more then half of all the anime cel's we 
know possess have been retouched, but that is 
only if we decide to keep them that long.

blah blah blah blah blah blah, i say if you want 
to find out find a dealer who deals in old anime 
cel's and ask them.  The techniques for the 
artwork are different but the way cel's are 
created on acetate and all can't be that 
different from what disney does so i think it is 
a sure bet that if you take care of your cel's 
that they could possibly last 100 years or more, 
with touch up work occasionally. blah blah blah 
blah blah blah blah blah blah......