LOS ANGELES — Three paintings from famously chill public television legend Bob Ross sold Tuesday for more than $600,000 at auction. The paintings were the first of 30 Ross works being sold to benefit public TV stations hurt by cuts in federal funding.

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At the live auction at Bonhams in Los Angeles, a serene, snow vista called “Winter's Peace” that Ross painted entirely during a 1993 episode of “The Joy of Painting” went for $318,000 to a bidder on the phone

Another painting done on a 1993 episode, a lush, green landscape called “Home in the Valley,” went for $229,100

All profits are pledged to stations that use content from distributor American Public Television

Ross died at age 52 of complications from cancer after 11 years in production with the therapeutic how-

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