A preliminary book illustration from Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak's illustrated children's classic from 1963, was sold yesterday at Heritage Auctions. It is untitled but has been referred to as Max Terrorizing the Dog at least since 2003.
Bidding opened at $40,000, the reserve price. As of November 9, no bids had yet been placed. |
Maurice Sendak
Heritage Auctions listing accessed November 9, 2025
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The auction house documents an interesting back-and-forth in the provenance: |
Maurice Sendak
Heritage Auctions item description |
But, wait!
By November 13, the reserve had been lowered. There were still no online bids when I captured the following image fourteen hours before the sale.
Yet the work did find a buyer during the live bidding on November 14, selling for a $44,000 hammer price plus the 25% buyer's premium.
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| Hammer price |
In some sense, the work might still be available if the price is right:
Sendak's final published illustration establishes a dynamic flow of movement down the stairs and through the doorway. Max now raises a fork as a weapon and the dog is no longer sitting on its haunches but quite understandably running away. To the drawing on the wall, Sendak has added the words "by Max"—and it isn't the same Wild Thing.
Personally, I never cared for the inclusion of the fork.
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