Frank Frazetta’s cover painting for the 1967 Conan novel is being offered by Heritage in a single lot auction on September 12, 2025. Known as Man Ape, the oil on canvas board is one of Frazetta’s most recognizable Conan paintings. It was drawn from a scene in Robert E. Howard’s “Rogues in the House” story in which Conan has a brutal fight with a vicious man-ape.

“Man Ape is a touchstone of fantasy illustration – an image that redefined Conan for modern audiences,” Heritage’s Executive Vice President Todd Hignite said. “To acquire this painting is to own not just a masterwork of draftsmanship and color but the very matrix from which so much of Conan’s modern mythos was born.”

The Conan cover could set a new auction record for a Frank Frazetta original painting. At press time, it had already surpassed $5 million in bids (including the buyer’s premium). The current record is held by Dark Kingdom, which sold for $6 million at Heritage in June 2023.

“This painting by Frank Frazetta is one of the most recognizable and iconic images of Conan the Cimmerian,” Robert E. Howard historian Mark Finn said.

What makes this auction even more special is its provenance. The Man Ape painting has been held by the Frazetta family since the artist created it in 1966.

“Frazetta’s covers for the Lancer/Ace series introduced a new theatricality into paperback illustration,” Hignite said. “They made Howard’s prose feel palpable to a new generation of readers.”

The Frazetta Conan painting is offered at the same time as Heritage’s Comic Art Auction on September 12-14.