10 Real-Life Curses That (Supposedly) Killed People

9. The Crying Boy

"The Crying Boy" refers to a painting by Bruno Amadio, which was mass-produced and particularly popular between the 60s and 80s. As the name suggests, the painting is of a boy in tears. Outside of being a rather bizarre thing to hang in your living room, it would be totally unremarkable were it not for the alleged curse surrounding it. In 1985 it was reported that fire-fighters in the UK were finding undamaged copies of The Crying Boy among the ruins of burned-down houses. Despite everything around them being reduced to ash and rubble, the eerie artwork was in pristine condition. Over the course of a few months, tabloid newspapers covered the story extensively, including a dozen or so incidences of house fires in which the painting remained intact. The Building Research Establishment theorised that the widespread occurrence happened because the prints were varnished with fire repellent, and the string holding the painting would burn away and cause it to lie flat on the floor. However, they were not able to explain why "The Crying Boy" was the only painting that this seemed to happen to.