Let's start from the basics. Urban legend is when a story started by… someone, somewhere, once, began to spread widely. So massive that at one point and then no one remembers where it started, nor of course where the truth begins and ends.
The vast majority of urban myths have some nuggets of truth in them, however, one can not say with certainty what really happened or what is a figment of the imagination of a good storyteller.
It is a given that at some point in your life you will have heard or read about an urban myth. You may have believed it. Especially in their time Social Media and the internet in general this is the only easy one, as many people have the (obviously wrong) view that "after it was written on the internet, then it is true".
One of the most well-known urban myths is "the cursed painting with the crying boy". No one can know which of the following is true. It is a given, however, that most of them cause chills.
It is also a fact that some of you will surely consider that the image of the tearful child is familiar to you. And this is one of the truths of this story as well as this one Painting was mass-produced and was found hanging in hundreds of thousands of homes around the world and of course in Greece. Especially in the 70s and 80s.
And at some point his gradual withdrawal began and we saw him in fewer and fewer houses until he disappeared.
Maybe the "withdrawal" of the painting has to do exactly with what was spread about him. After all, who would want a cursed painting in their living room?
As already mentioned, this painting is not the work of a famous painter. It is the cheap creation of an infamous artist which was used for mass production. Because people liked it and bought it with fury, many people tried to copy it and that is why you can see it in various variations, but with the central idea always remaining the same. A melancholy little boy to be in tears.
The creator of the project differs depending on the country where one buys it. In Greece, for example, there were many copies that bore the signature of D. Tsalganis. Unknown whether it is a real person or even a well-known painter who signed copies with that name that he made.
Abroad you will find the exact same painting with signatures such as "Giovanni Bragolin", or "Angelo Bragolin" or "Franchot Seville".
When the bad rumors about the curse started to spread more widely, some people started looking for it more and it seems that finally in this part of the urban myth the truth was found.
The creator of the painting is the Italian painter Bruno Amadio (1911-1981) who had been "arrested" in the past to use as nicknames all three names that you read a little earlier.
As for the "model" used by Amadio, it seems that everything points to the fact that this is a little boy who lived homeless on her streets. Venice or in an orphanage in the magical Italian city.
So far we have all the ingredients for a story that can be turned into a thriller! A mysterious painter, a small, sad, child and an orphanage. And from this point the situation begins to get complicated as a British "The Sun" article reported on a strange fire that burned down a family home in Essex.
According to that report (dated September 4, 1985), the fire that started in the kitchen of the house, almost burned the whole house. The fiery flame left a few things behind. Among them is a painting with a little boy crying.
So far, so good. Coincidentally, one might say. Right.
The issue, however, is that one of the firefighters who took part in the firefighting, told the newspaper reporter that he has seen the same painting (meaning copies) escaping the flames in at least 50 houses that have burned in the last decade!
At the same time, the owners of the house, Ron and May Hall, said that they take it for granted that the painting is to blame for causing the fire. And they did not mean the electrical panel.
By a diabolical coincidence the firefighter was the brother of the homeowner!
That was enough for the scandalous "Sun". The next day he informed everyone that there is a curse, it is a given! Go and finish.
Hundreds of panicked people called and said they were afraid to stay at home. The newspaper took the opportunity to go one step further…
She organized a mass burning of the copies and called on her readers to hand them over so that their day would be ruined. Halloween and erase the curse!
As is normal, panic and hysteria prevailed. The urban myth was growing day by day. Until at some point rumors began to spread about the little boy.
The most common of these stories is that this little boy named Don Bonillo had lost his parents in a fire. The child initially went to live with a priest who abused him. The child managed to leave when the priest's house caught fire. The priest accused him of setting this on fire. Then he went to live in orphanage but then broke out and lived on the streets until he met Bruno Amadio who took it under his protection.
He was hosting it and at some point he took it with him to the studio to do the portrait. But the little boy did not want to. He was sad and for this reason he appears on the board crying. A few days later (yes, you guessed it) the painter's studio was consumed by fire. The little one took the opportunity and popped it. No one has seen him since. It is said that when he grew up he lost his life in a car accident. The car he was driving after the collision was engulfed in flames and he did not manage to get out of it.
Many and shocking stories to bring them ένας a simple painting and somehow began to disappear from the living rooms of houses. So, for good and for bad.
For those who are not convinced, however, by the stories of cursed paintings there is also the explanation given by the Essex fire department. According to her, the story with the 50 fires is not confirmed. However, there were some cases where the house was found intact (or almost intact) in burned houses.
But this also has its logical explanation. On the one hand it has to do with some material from which the painting or the frame is made and which prevents the spread of fire and on the other hand when there is a fire the first one that burns is the thin wire or the cord that holds the painting on the wall and is cut as a result he to fall to the floor upside down and so the painting is protected for a while and until the fire is extinguished fire Department.
Whether or not the painting with the crying boy is burning, however, was even experimented with on a BBC show to see if the painting was actually burning or not.
See it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. And if at some point you find yourself in a second-hand shop and "fall" on any board that shows a little boy crying, remember everything you read and decide whether to buy it or pass it hurriedly and scared…