Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to help fund US public broadcasting

Paintings by famed art teacher Bob Ross will be auctioned off to help public television stations that have faced funding cuts under the Trump administration.

Around 30 of his works, most of which he created on air during his television show The Joy of Painting in the 1980s and 1990s, will be auctioned by Bonhams from November.

Bob Ross Inc said the auction “ensures that Bob’s legacy continues to support the very medium that brought his joy and creativity into American homes for decades.”

This comes after Congress passed Trump’s demand to defund public broadcasting, leaving some 330 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) stations scrambling to find a new source of funding.

Ross’s show saw a resurgence during the Covid pandemic, as audiences enjoyed his soft-spoken painting lessons. Misplaced brushstrokes, the former Air Force drill sergeant said, were just “happy accidents.” He died at the age of 52 in 1995.

Bob Ross Inc said it donated the paintings to US Public Television and that all net profits would be donated to local public television stations nationwide.

This includes programs such as America’s Test Kitchen, Julia Child’s French Chef Classics and This Old House, the Associated Press news agency reported.

In August, the auction of two of Ross’s works broke records, selling for double and triple what was expected.

Lake Below Snow-Capped Peaks and Cloudy Sky sold for $114,800, while Lake Below Snow-Covered Mountains and Clear Sky sold for $95,750.

“I can tell you that Bob would have been pretty shy to learn that his paintings are now selling for six figures,” Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc, told the New York Post after the lots were sold.

“He was never really interested in his finished works, Bob was more fascinated by the process of painting and sharing that with other people.”

“In truth, I still hear him say something like, ‘You don’t want my paintings, you want to make your own and hang them proudly on your wall.'”