Friday was a very strange day. Our goal was to visit Christie’s and see the collection of Maurice Sendak (both his own work and the work of other artists he had owned) that would be soon up for auction. Christie’s is located near St Patrick’s Cathedral. When we approached we saw hundreds of police for blocks and blocks surrounding St Patrick’s. Turns out we bumped into former NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik’s funeral. We spent about 30 minutes watching all of the politicos both present and past, both felon and would be felons. Needless to say, we had a lot to comment upon. I will not share those comments with you today but any of you that know me will know what we were speaking about.

   We headed off to Christie’s and sadly we were disappointed. There were very few Sendak pieces. There was mostly his collection of other artists. His tastes were all over the map. From David Hockney, Disney, Vallotton, Beatrix Potter, Vuillard, Louise Nevelson, Audubon, William Blake, MC Escher and Albrecht Durer. While enjoyable it was not what we expected. So onward we went to FAO Schwartz where Sendak had a longtime relationship. We found his big clock, posters and of course lots of stuffed creatures in the gift shop. I have also included some older photos from my visit to the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia in 2013. They had many of his works including a wall from a child’s bedroom he had painted.

  If you go to the Christie’s website you will see the entire block up for auction. Some are quite reasonable.