A landscape created by Bob Ross on-air during a 1987 episode of “The Joy of Painting” is heading to auction next week.
The work, titled “Mountain Summit,” is being sold by the Bonhams Skinner auction house in Massachusetts on Tuesday as part of a sale centered on pieces of Americana and the nation’s 250th anniversary, per the lot listing.
Bonhams Skinner is estimating that “Mountain Summit” will sell for between $50,000 and $70,000.
Proceeds will benefit the seller, Ball State University.
Thirty seasons of the PBS show were filmed at the school-owned WIPB TV station of Muncie, Indiana, from 1983 to 1994, the year before Ross died.
“Mountain Summit” was painted on the 10th episode of the show’s 13th season and first aired on Nov. 4, 1987.
“Bob Ross’ connection to Muncie and WIPB is a special part of Ball State PBS’ story. This painting is a beautiful reminder of the role our station played in helping bring Bob’s creativity, encouragement, and joy to viewers around the world,” Angie Grimes, interim general manager for Ball State Public Media, said in a release from the school.
Since last November, three auctions of Bob Ross’ works netted over $2 million in sales to benefit public TV, with each painting going for more than the estimate, according to the Muncie Journal.
“Bob came to Muncie because WIPB welcomed him like family, and he gave them the key to sharing his special way of painting, now more abundantly over the airwaves. … ’Mountain Summit’ is Bob’s painting returning home, and its proceeds will help ensure that the station he loved continues to serve the community that first believed in him,” Bob Ross Inc. President Joan Kowalski said, according to the Journal.
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