A happy circumstance: Bob Ross paintings sell for more than $600K to help public TV stations

LOS ANGELES -- Three paintings from famously chill nationalist tv fable Bob Ross sold Tuesday for much than $600,000 astatine auction. The paintings were the archetypal of 30 Ross works being sold to payment nationalist TV stations wounded by cuts successful national funding.

At the unrecorded auction astatine Bonhams successful Los Angeles, a serene, snowfall vista called “Winter's Peace” that Ross painted wholly during a 1993 occurrence of “The Joy of Painting” went for $318,000 to a bidder connected the phone.

“For a bully origin — and you get the painting,” auctioneer Aaron Bastian said during the bidding. He invoked a communal sentiment of Ross, who died successful 1995, during a little lull. “Bob would punctual you that this is your world, and you tin bash thing you want.”

Another coating done connected a 1993 episode, a lush, greenish scenery called “Home successful the Valley,” went for $229,100. A third, “Cliffside,” sold for $114,800.

The last prices see a complaint for the auction location added to the last bid known arsenic the buyer's premium. The identities of the buyers weren't instantly revealed.

Bids for each 3 paintings went good past pre-auction estimates of their value, which topped retired astir $50,000.

Three much Ross paintings volition beryllium up for auction astatine Bonhams successful Marlborough, Massachusetts, connected Jan. 27, with others to follow, including 1 successful New York.

All profits are pledged to stations that usage contented from distributor American Public Television.

Ross, a nationalist tv staple successful the 1980s and '90s, was known for his dome of hairsbreadth and lukewarm demeanor.

The peculiar income question to assistance stations successful request of licensing fees that let them to amusement fashionable programs that on with Ross' amusement see “America's Test Kitchen,” “Julia Child's French Chef Classics,” and “This Old House.” Small and agrarian stations are peculiarly challenged.

The stations “have been the gateway for generations of viewers to observe not conscionable Bob’s gentle teaching, but the transformative powerfulness of the arts,” Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc., said successful a statement.

As sought by the Trump Administration, Congress has eliminated $1.1 cardinal allocated to nationalist broadcasting, leaving astir 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations.

Ross died astatine property 52 of complications from crab aft 11 years successful accumulation with the therapeutic how-to show, “The Joy of Painting.” The erstwhile Air Force drill sergeant was a benignant of pioneer, known for his calm — and calming — mode and encouraging words.

Ross spoke often arsenic helium worked connected aerial astir coating blessed small clouds and trees, and making nary mistakes, lone “happy accidents.”

He has lone became much fashionable successful the decades since his death, and his shows saw a surge successful popularity during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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This communicative was archetypal published connected Nov. 11, 2025. It was updated connected Nov. 12, 2025, to close that an auction of Ross paintings successful London is nary longer planned.