Christie's will auction over 100 objects from Maurice Sendak's personal collection on June 10, 2025, at Rockefeller Center, with an online component from May 29 to June 10. The sale includes works by Dürer, Rembrandt, David Hockney, Pablo Picasso, George Stubbs, and William Blake, as well as rare editions of Blake's *Songs of Experience* (1794) and *Songs of Innocence* (1789), a vintage Mickey and Minnie Mouse tinplate toy, and 30 lots by Sendak himself, including a first-edition cover of *Where the Wild Things Are* (1963). Proceeds will support the Sendak Fellowship residency program at the Sendak Foundation in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
This auction matters because it offers an unprecedented window into the eclectic inspirations behind one of the most beloved children's book authors and illustrators of the 20th century. By revealing Sendak's deep engagement with Romantic-era art, English pastoralists, and folk objects, the sale reframes his work within a broader art-historical context, while also fueling continued public and market interest following major retrospectives at the Morgan Library and Denver Art Museum.