Cursed "Crying boy" painting!

The Crying Boy Painting

Ancient curses invoked by tomb-raiders have remained a popular theme in fiction and folklore for centuries. However, belief in cursed objects is not confined to legends surrounding Egyptian relics, or to the stories of MR James. In the modern world, there are many who believe they have personally experienced uncanny phenomena as a result of contact with a cursed artifact  Portraits or human likenesses, whether carved or painted, are frequently the focus of this type of legend. In recent years, stories of bad luck and misfortune have grown up around certain artifacts that are presumed to have had ritual or magical functions, some of which are apparently quite recent in origin. 

In folk belief, the notion that a picture falling from a wall is an omen of impending death – particularly if it is a portrait – remains one of the most widespread modern superstitions. Similarly, eerie portraits whose eyes “seem to follow you wherever you go” have become a staple scene-setter in numerous horror flicks. Folklore is not static, but active and dynamic – especially when it invokes latent beliefs rooted in older superstitions. And so we find that fear and anxiety continue to surround an eerie portrait that has, quite literally, blazed a trail across the British Isles and around the world in the space of two decades.



Introducing the Myth
The Crying Boy Painting refers to a mass produced replica of a painting from Spanish artist Bruno Amadio.A fireman reported to have removed an undamaged painting from the burnt out wreck of a house in Yorkshire. He was quoted as saying that no firefighter he knew would allow a copy of the painting in their house.

Genesis of the Legend
Soon reports were coming in from all over Britain. They all had the same circumstances. A house fire, and inexplicably an unburnt picture of a crying boy found in the wreckage. Trouble was, a lot of them were different pictures, so how did this all link together. Lets go back to the beginning.

The legend around this painting is as creepy as it gets. The stories began around 1985, when several mysterious fires occurred all around England.  Mysteriously, after all the debris was cleared, the only item that remained un-charred was the painting of the Crying Boy.  A Yorkshire fireman was so distraught by the occurrences that he told the story to a newspaper in England.  There were at that time more than one of these paintings around and each seemed to have the same effect.  Perhaps copies of the painting also transferred the curse as well.  The newspaper began receiving telephone calls from people all over the area that had similar stories to tell about the crying boy painting.  One person that contacted the “Sun tabloid  was Dora Mann of Mitcham and she has been quoted as saying "Only six months after I had bought the picture, my house was completely gutted by fire. All my paintings were destroyed, except the one of the crying boy."

After one month of hearing all the tales, the “Sun tabloid  gave their readers the chance to bring their crying boy paintings and have a large bonfire to destroy them.  All the paintings that were brought to the event were burned.  No one knows for sure where the painting originated from or who the artist might be, but it can't be just a coincidence that 40-50 similar cases occurred in the same time period.  The picture itself was a portrait painted by a Spanish artist of an orphan that was mass produced in the UK with several thousand in circulation.  It is said that the artist's studio burnt to the ground, and the boy was later killed in a car crash. It is said that the curse will only effect someone if the owner of the painting becomes aware of it. Some psychics have claimed that the painting is Haunted by the spirit of the boy it depicts.

By the end of November, belief in the painting's curse was widespread enough that  mass bonfires of the paintings were organised.
To lift the curse it is said you must give the painting to another or reunite the boy and the girl and hang them together.

Sources:
http://www.paranormalnewscentral.com/hauntings/related-topics/haunted-objects/723-crying-boy-painting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crying_Boy
http://zakmoonbeam.hubpages.com/hub/The-Curse-of-the-Crying-Boy