In 1985 a series of mysterious house fires were brought to the attention of the general public by The Sun newspaper, following the discovery that in each case, the buildings and all their contents were completely destroyed apart from a painting named The Crying Boy, which remained unscathed. In the years that followed, some 40-50 cases were recorded in which a house fire had destroyed everything except for the picture. It became known as the "Curse of the Crying Boy".
The picture itself was a portrait painted by a Spanish artist named Giovanni Bragolin of an orphan said to be named Don Bonillo, known locally as Diablo due to the fact that wherever he settled fires of unknown origin would mysteriously break out. The picture is one of the first to be mass produced in the UK, there are several thousand of them in circulation, but the curse still appears to apply to all the copies. 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.
It has been claimed that Giovanni Bragolin aka Franchot Seville aka J.Bragolin aka Bruno Amadio, painted 28 paintings of various children crying all of which represent DEAD children. If you look closely at the pictures you can in fact spot some subliminal evil, for instance burn marks on their faces, also the pupils are clearly dilated despite the fact that light is shining towards the child. It is reported that Giovanni Bragolin since regreted his actions and in the late 80's he appeared in the biggest TV channel in Brazil, Rede Globo, where he told everyone who has copies or originals to destroy them because he had made a evil pact in order to sell his paintings. It is said that the paintings bring extreme misfortune and disgrace to the owners, however, it is believed that the curse can be counteracted by hanging a picture of a crying girl alongside it.
So what is it about these portraits? Are they possessed by the spirit of a dead child? Is the devil himself playing with fire? or was 4 September 1985 a slow news day for The Sun?
Lets look at the facts! It's Britain in the mid 80's and artwork for the first time is being mass produced. What sort of Brit would buy a mass produced portrait of a young child crying to hang in their home? Even by the 80's standards it would have to be someone with little class or taste. Perhaps the type that would also regulary use a chip pan and smoke 30 fags a day yet see smoke alarms as something of an extravagance? And it is just a copy of a painting after all, paper, ink and a dodgy frame. No live bits, not even any electrical bits and surley the devil would have better things to do with his time than pop over to the North West of England and destroy a few homes just because some Spanish painter urged him to help to sell his paintings, that'd be a cnuts trick! Whatever the reason, this is more than an urban legend, it is fact that these house fires happened and it is fact that the paintings would remain wholly unharmed. It would be one thing if it were just Sun readers amongst the flurry of people quick to report it's evil but the story of The Crying Boy and it's curse is a worldwide phenomenon.
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Evil Artwork - The curse of The Crying Boy.
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