The first of 30 Bob Ross paintings — many of them created live on the PBS series that made him a household name — have been auctioned off to support public television.
Ross, with his distinctive afro, soothing voice and sunny outlook, empowered millions of viewers to make and appreciate art through his show The Joy of Painting. More than 400 half-hour episodes aired on PBS (and eventually the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from 1983 to 1994, the year before Ross died of cancer at age 52.
Ross’ impact lives on: His show still airs on PBS and streams on platforms like Hulu and Twitch. It has surged in popularity in recent years, particularly as viewers searched for comfort during COVID-19 lockdowns. Certified instructors continue teaching his wet-on-wet oil painting technique to the masses, and the Smithsonian acquired several of his works for its permanent collection in 2019. But his artwork rarely goes up for sale — until recently.
In October, the nonprofit syndicator American Public Television (APT) announced it would auction off 30 of Ross’ paintings to raise money for public broadcasters hit by federal funding cuts. It pledged to direct 100% of its net sales proceeds to APT and PBS stations nationwide.
Auction house Bonhams is calling it the “largest single offering of Bob Ross original works ever brought to market.”
Ross has become synonymous with public broadcasting and some activists have even invoked him in their calls for restoring federal funding to it.
“It’s a medium that Bob just cherished,” said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross, Inc., in a phone call with NPR. “With the cuts, it’s just a natural inclination to support public television.”
The first three paintings sold in Los Angeles on Nov. 11. for a record-shattering $662,000. Bonhams says the works attracted hundreds of registrations, more than twice the usual number for that type of sale. Each sold for more than its estimated worth, led by Winter’s Peace, which fetched $318,000 to set a new Ross auction record.
“As anticipated, these paintings inspired spirited bidding, achieved impressive results and broke global auction records, continuing the momentum we’ve seen building in [Ross’] market,” said Robin Starr, the general manager of Bonhams Skinner, the auction house’s Massachusetts branch. “These successes provide a solid foundation as we look ahead to 2026 and prepare to present the next group of Bob Ross works.”
The next trio of paintings will be auctioned in Massachusetts in late January. The rest will be sold throughout 2026 at Bonham’s salerooms in Los Angeles, New York and Boston.
How the offering could benefit public broadcasters
At President Trump’s direction, Congress voted in July to claw back $1.1 billion in previously allocated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), leaving the country’s roughly 330 PBS and 244 NPR stations in a precarious position.
CPB began shutting down at the end of September, PBS has already cut 15% of its jobs, and several local TV and radio stations have also announced layoffs and closures.
“I think he would be very disappointed” about the CPB cuts, Kowalski said of Ross. “I think he would have decided to do exactly what we’re doing right now ... I think this would have probably been his idea.”
Kowalski, whose parents founded Bob Ross Inc. together with the painter in 1985, said Ross favored positive activism over destructive or empty rhetoric.
“That just was his nature,” she said. “He was like that in real life. So I think this would have been exactly the thing that he would have chosen. I suddenly got really emotional thinking about that.”
The Ross auction aims to help stations pay their licensing fees to the national TV channel Create, which in turn allows them to air popular public television programs including The Best of the Joy of Painting (based on Ross’ show), America’s Test Kitchen, Rick Steve’s Europe and Julia Child’s French Chef Classics.
Bonhams says the auction proceeds will help stations — particularly smaller and rural ones — defray the cost burden of licensing fees, making Create available to more of them.
“This enables stations to maintain their educational programming while redirecting funds toward other critical operations and local content production threatened by federal funding cuts,” the auction house says.
The Ross auction aims to help stations pay their licensing fees to the national TV channel Create, which in turn allows them to air popular public television programs including The Best of the Joy of Painting (based on Ross’ show), America’s Test Kitchen, Rick Steve’s Europe and Julia Child’s French Chef Classics.
Bonhams says the auction proceeds will help stations — particularly smaller and rural ones — defray the cost burden of licensing fees, making Create available to more of them.
“This enables stations to maintain their educational programming while redirecting funds toward other critical operations and local content production threatened by federal funding cuts,” the auction house says.
Ross started painting during his 20-year career in the Air Force, much of which was spent in Alaska. That experience shaped his penchant for landscapes and ability to work quickly — and, he later said, his desire not to raise his voice once out of the service.
Once on the airwaves, Ross’ soft-spoken guidance and gentle demeanor won over millions of viewers. His advice applied to art as well as life: Mistakes are just “happy accidents,” talent is a “pursued interest,” and it’s important to “take a step back and look.”
“Ross’ gentle teaching style and positive philosophy made him a cultural icon whose influence extends far beyond the art world,” Bonhams says.
While Ross was prolific, his paintings were intended for teaching instead of selling, and therefore rarely go on the market.
In August, Bonhams sold two of Ross’ early 1990s mountain and lake scenes as part of an online auction of American art. They fetched $114,800 and $95,750, surpassing expectations and setting a new auction world record for Ross at the time. Kowalski says that’s when her gears started turning.
“And it just got me to thinking, that’s a substantial amount of money,” she recalled. “And what if, what if, what if?”
Bonhams officially estimates that the 30 paintings could go for a combined total between $850,000 and $1.4 million. But Starr, of the auction house, predicted in October that they will continue to exceed expectations, based on their artistic value, nostalgia factor and more.
“Now we add in the fact that these are selling to benefit public television, I think the bidding is going to be very happy,” she said. “Happy trees, happy bidding.”
Disclosure: This story was edited by general assignment editor Carol Ritchie and managing editor Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR’s protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
