Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to fund US public broadcasting
- Published
Paintings by celebrated art tutor Bob Ross will be auctioned to help support public television stations that have faced funding cuts under the Trump administration.
About 30 of his artworks, which he mostly created on-air during his TV show, the Joy of Painting, in the 80s and 90s, will be auctioned by Bonhams from November.
Bob Ross Inc said the auction "ensures Bob's legacy continues to support the very medium that brought his joy and creativity into American homes for decades".
It comes after Congress passed Trump's request to strip public broadcast funding, leaving some 330 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) stations scrambling for a new funding source.
Ross' show saw a resurgence during the Covid pandemic, as audiences enjoyed his soft-spoken, paint-along lessons. Misplaced brush strokes, the former Air Force drill sergeant would say, were just "happy accidents". He died at the age of 52 in 1995.
Bob Ross Inc said it donated the paintings to American Public Television, and that all of the net proceeds go to local public TV stations nationwide.
This includes programmes 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' works shattered records, having sold for double and triple what had been 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 quite shy to learn that his paintings are now selling at six figures," Joan Kowalski, the president of Bob Ross Inc, told the New York Post, external after the lots sold.
"He was never really that interested in his finished works, Bob was more fascinated with the process of painting and sharing that with other people."
"Truthfully, I can still hear him saying something like, 'You don't want my paintings, you want to create your own and hang them proudly on your wall.'"