{"id":317406,"date":"2025-11-27T21:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/317406\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T21:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:23:16","slug":"john-oliver-sells-his-bob-ross-painting-raises-record-1-5-million-for-public-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/317406\/","title":{"rendered":"John Oliver Sells His Bob Ross Painting Raises Record $1.5 Million for Public Television"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bob Ross painting Cabin at Sunset \u2013 credit, screenshot via John Oliver\u2019s Junk<\/p>\n

GNN reported<\/a> recently that a Los Angeles auction house recently handled the sale of three paintings by the famous TV artist Bob Ross, with the proceeds of over $600,000 going to fund public television and radio.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the effort, HBO\u2019s comedy news host John Oliver announced that he too had an original Ross that he would auction for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.<\/p>\n

On the last episode of the most recent season of\u00a0Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,\u00a0the British-born TV host revealed an auction catalogue<\/a> called \u201cJohn Oliver\u2019s Junk\u201d headlined by Cabin at Sunset,\u00a0which Ross painted in season 10 of his show The Joy of Painting.<\/p>\n

It managed to set a new auction record for a Bob Ross painting of $1,035,000 after 35 bids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve actually accumulated a bunch of weird artifacts on this show over the years that we could definitely auction off to raise some much needed money,\u201d Oliver said on last week\u2019s show. \u201cI am proud to announce last week tonight\u2019s first ever auction in aid of public media.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proceeds from the sales of\u00a0Cabin at Sunset\u00a0and 34 other items totaled $1.5 million which has been transferred to the Public Media Bridge Fund which helps support stations and programs in need of funding.<\/p>\n

Most of the items included show memorabilia<\/a>, including a pair of golden sneakers Oliver promised to wear almost decade ago if former FIFA President Sep Blatter resigned, a cabbage that Oliver married in a segment on AI-generated art, and a jockstrap worn by Russel Crowe.<\/p>\n

A pair of VIP tickets to a live show taping caught over $110,000.<\/p>\n

OTHER STORIES TO INSPIRE: Thousands in Donations Pour into Animal Shelter Where Jon Stewart Adopted His Beloved Dog That Just Passed Away<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a GSE that funds public radio and television in America, was receiving over $1 billion of its budget from the government, anyone who watches PBS or listens to NPR notes the frequency with which they run pledge drives. This along with other for-profit productions generates substantial revenue that helps keep the CBP operational.<\/p>\n

It was the idea of Bob Ross Inc., the company that manages the painter\u2019s likeness and property, to hold the auction in support of public television, something which he loved so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this actually would have been Bob\u2019s idea,\u201d said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc. \u201cAnd when I think about that, it makes me very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELEVISION STORIES: Mutual of Omaha\u2019s Wild Kingdom Returns to Modern Screens With Hopeful Stories of Wildlife Problems Solved<\/a><\/p>\n

Home in the Valley,\u00a0(1993)\u00a0Cliffside,\u00a0(1990) and\u00a0Winter\u2019s Peace\u00a0(1993) were priced to start at Bonham\u2019s auctioneers at between $25,000 \u2013 $30,000, but all three quickly exploded in action.<\/p>\n

The first brought $229,100, the second $114,800, and\u00a0Winter\u2019s Peace\u00a0went for a staggering $318,000.<\/p>\n

WATCH the segment below\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

SHARE This Happy Little Auction By John Oliver In Support Of Public TV\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Ross painting Cabin at Sunset \u2013 credit, screenshot via John Oliver\u2019s Junk GNN reported recently that a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,236,229,88,3115,1033,1505],"class_list":{"0":"post-317406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-fundraising","15":"tag-painting","16":"tag-television"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}