Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to support public television

Three original paintings by iconic television artist Bob Ross will be auctioned by Bonhams in Los Angeles on Tuesday in a sale aimed at supporting public television stations across the United States.

The sale, organized by American Public Television (APT), is part of the largest release of Ross originals ever offered to the public. Thirty paintings in all will be auctioned, with all net proceeds benefiting public broadcasting.

Two of the paintings on display ahead of the auction were created on Ross' show The Joy of Painting, which aired on PBS for 11 years, from January 1983 to May 1994. One painting, a seascape on a vertical canvas, was painted for an instructional book Ross published.

The idea for the auction came from Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc., the company that manages Ross' intellectual property, brand, and legacy. Kowalski was inspired to auction the paintings after seeing two privately owned Ross paintings sell for high prices at Bonhams earlier in 2025. She reached out to APT to explore how a larger sale could help offset recent federal funding losses.

“It was just an idea I had in my head in the middle of the night,” Kowalski said. “No idea whether it would work or not, but little by little, I put the pieces together and decided it was really kind of a great idea. And I decided it's probably something Bob would have decided to do if he was still here.”

The auction comes at a time of financial strain for public media. In July 2025, Congress eliminated $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, fulfilling a goal of President Donald Trump to defund public media.

Gabriella Jones-Litchfield, president of GJL Media and a consultant for APT, said the auction reflects Ross’s belief that public television should be accessible to everyone. “Whether you're in rural America or in a major city, public television is there for those people and for us,” she said. “Now we're in desperate need to fulfill this gap, this funding gap and really think about the future of what public television is and how we can survive in the future."

Aaron Bastian, senior director of California and Western paintings at Bonhams, said his hopes for the auction are high. “It's a risk. You don't know what's going to happen," Bastian said. "Hopefully, people will open their hearts and their wallet a little bit, knowing that the money's going to a good cause and they get to take home the painting."

Ross died on July 4, 1995 at the age of 52. His gentle teaching style and optimistic philosophy helped make him a cultural icon. His popularity has recently reached younger audiences as a result of social media and streaming platforms.