Background Bob Art Auction smashes £50,000 target

At 6pm yesterday, after 7 days of frantic bidding, the Background Bob Art Auction came to an end.

When we wrote about the Background Bob art auction on 6^th February, Background Bob’s dad, Nathan told us, “it would be incredible if the grand total including book sales broke £50,000”…

Well it did just a little better than that!

Sales from the art auction alone totalled a whopping £81,338, add to that the £18,000 taken from sales of the ‘Background Bob and his amazing friends book’ and you’re just shy of £100,000, almost double the initial goal of £50,000.

To be honest we’re blown away by the generosity of the bidders. The last 7 days have been mesmerising as we hit refresh on the Background Bob eBay pages eagerly watching the prices rise…

And rise they did.

Having all started at 99p, things moved quickly with many straight over the £100 mark. By 6pm last night (7^th March) a vast number had broken £500. Five pieces such as ones by The London Police and Suzanne Philips had broken the £1,000 barrier and one even went on to break £3,000.

That particular piece was by the masked man himself Mason Storm. We spoke to Mason to find out what the project meant to him…

“What a fabulous opportunity and privilege it was to be asked in the first place. As artists we often forget to take time out to look at what our art can do, other than increase our bank balances. The fact that a simple drawing or painting could raise so much for such an amazing cause is just magical.

It has been said that anyone can paint or draw but the real art is in the selling so my part was just a tiny link in the chain, it was Noah’s family, friends and supporters that made this happen, and remember it was Background Bob’s amazing painting that made my little piece look good.

This is what art can do and we are very fortunate to be able to help by doing something we love doing. X”

We also spoke to Nathan soon after the auction ended to congratulate him and to find out how he was feeling:

“The amount of money raised from this auction has actually left me speechless and for those of you who have met me know that’s doesn’t happen very often.

As a family we are deeply humbled and eternally grateful for all the love shown for our little boy and his art project. This whole Covid period would have been a real struggle for us, but with the love and generosity of over 240 artists, coming together from all over the world, they have made it truly magical time in our lives.

We really want to thank every single person who has shown us support throughout this project. It’s been a big, loving team effort. This incredible sum of money will make a huge difference to so many families lives like ours!!”

We couldn’t agree more. The support for this project from the art community has been overwhelming and a much needed distraction from the chaos Covid has caused over the last 12 months.

To see all the amazing works of art raise such an amazing sum for ‘The Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals Charity’ has been humbling. Every artist involved should be immensely proud of what has been achieved and it just proves what we’ve always known….

Artists are a bloody wonderful bunch of Creative Folk 😊