You can’t go wrong. The late Bob Ross’ Happy Tree is once again helping public broadcasting. On the 2025 finale of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” which aired last week, the host persuaded the Bob Ross Foundation to auction off a painting of another PBS television star in support of public media. And it paid off: “Cabin at Sunset,” which Ross painted in a 1986 season 10 episode of PBS’s “The Joy of Painting,” sold for about $1,044,000 after 35 bids.
Bidding ended at midnight ET Monday night, setting a new auction record for a Bob Ross painting. Earlier this month, Bonhams Los Angeles auctioned off three more of Ross’ Joy of Painting works to support American Public Television, which continues to distribute Joy of Painting. On November 11th, “Winter’s Peace” (1993) sold for $318,000, “Cliffside” (1990) sold for $229,100, and “Home in the Valley” sold for $114,800. Collectively, these three paintings fetched $662,000, which is now dwarfed by this new figure.
On the Nov. 16 episode of “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver detailed how the Trump administration and Congress’ decision to eliminate $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting earlier this year had a particularly severe impact on local radio and television stations. That’s why the show launched John Oliver’s Junk, a website listing 65 items (mostly from the show) that were up for bid to support the public broadcaster, including “The Cabin at Dusk.”
Overall, the auction raised approximately $1.54 million for the Public Media Bridge Fund, which helps local public broadcasters temporarily find new funding in the wake of CPB’s closure.
Of course, the Bob Ross painting accounted for most of that amount. But other major items included the chance to have someone’s photo appear on a graphic above Oliver’s shoulder during the episode (and two VIP tickets to a live show recording), which sold for $100,025. A trip to New York to meet Oliver won $51,600, and an autographed case of “Sauvignon” wine won $13,025.
Other items included Russell Crowe’s jockstrap (worn by Russell Crowe in the major motion picture ‘Cinderella Man’ and later purchased on ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ during Season 5 of the show as part of Crowe’s ‘The Art of Divorce, an auction in which Crowe sold personal items to pay for his divorce’), which fetched $21,000. and “Mrs. Cabbage Oliver” (“John Oliver’s on-screen wife, married in an on-screen wedding officiated by Steve Buscemi, part of a ‘Last Week Tonight’ Season 9 segment about AI-generated art in which John marries Cabbage in his studio”) sold for $11,111.
Also, a large gold-plated reproduction of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s testicles (“Sculpture of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Scrotum, Part of the Season 12 Corner of the Presidential Library”) sold for $25,500, and wax figures of five U.S. presidents ranged in price from $6,000 (Bill Clinton) to $3,333 (William Henry Harrison). Golden Adidas sneakers (“the gold sneakers that John Oliver promised to wear in the Season 2 episode of ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ if scandal-hit FIFA President Sepp Blatter resigns”) increased in price by $5,148.
Oliver said on last week’s show: “We’ve accumulated a lot of strange artifacts on this show over the years. We can definitely put them up for auction and raise some much-needed funds.” “Last week, we were proud to announce that we will be holding our first-ever public media-sponsored auction tonight. This is the real deal!” Proceeds will go to the Public Media Bridge Fund, which is helping local public broadcasters temporarily find new funding in the wake of the CPB closure.
In the case of the Bonhams auction, these three paintings are part of 30 Bob Ross works to be sold over the next year, with American Public Television dedicating all proceeds to supporting public television stations across the country.
