These pictures cursed their owners: 7 most mysterious stories

Do you remember Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray? When, instead of a person, a portrait that reflects all the sins of the hero begins to age. In the real world of painting, there are many mystical stories that can easily compete with a literary plot.

Therefore, if you are a fan of mystical and mysterious stories, this material is for you. Today we have collected seven pictures that curse their owners, keepers, authors and even just viewers.

We warn you, after these stories you will definitely have to sleep with the lights on.

“The Scream” by Edvard Munch

There are many strange stories associated with this masterpiece by Edvard Munch. First, the painting was played twice: first in 1994 and then in 2004. But this is not the most interesting. Museum keepers say this work of the artist is cursed. And there are good reasons for that.

One day a security guard accidentally dropped the painting. He was not injured, but at that moment the worker began to suffer from terrible headaches. No medicine could relieve them, two years later he hanged himself. Something similar happened after a while. The caretaker accidentally dropped “The Scream” and they say it mysteriously fell out of her hands. He died in a car accident two days later. Meanwhile, the museum staff, who had to stay in the same room with this painting for a long time, complained of an unexpected mental disorder, depression, headache and even insomnia.

The Crying Child by Giovanni Bragolin

Giovanni Bragolin is an Italian painter who became famous for his paintings of crying children. In other words, according to the legend, the son of the artist was depicted in one of the works. To make the boy cry, Bragolin lit a match in front of his face, although he was very afraid of fire. As a result, the boy could not stand it and shouted: “You yourself are on fire!” There is no confirmation of this legend anywhere. But in the 1980s northern England was engulfed by a series of fires. Completely intact reproductions of this painting were found in all the affected homes. In 1985 The Sun newspaper published the article “The Flaming Curse of the Crying Child” based on the story of an English couple from the city of Rotherham. According to them, they left a frying pan on a burning stove, so the house caught fire. When firefighters arrived, they found only one surviving piece. Guess what happened? That’s right, a copy of the “Crying Boy” painting.

“Water Lilies” by Claude Monet

Another painting that allegedly caused the fires. Trouble began when a fire broke out in the studio of the Impressionist artist Claude Monet just after he had finished work on the masterpiece. After some time, “Lilies” were bought for a famous cabaret that burned in Montmartre. Then the canvas went to the collector Otto Schmidts, who shared the same fate. His house burned down and only one wall remained. We think you can guess what’s hanging on it. With such a reputation, the painting ended up at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But even there, a fire broke out, in which a person died a few years later.

“Unknown” by Ivan Kramskoy

It has not yet been clarified who this mysterious woman depicted in the picture, which brings only sadness to its owners. It all started when Pavel Tretyakov did not want to exhibit it in his gallery. Then the business of Ivan Kramskoy passed into private ownership. Soon after, his wife left the first buyer of the Unknown. The next one was no luckier, his house burned down and only the painting survived. Then he moved on to the third “lucky” who soon went bankrupt. The artist himself suffered from the painting – a year later his two sons died. “Unknown” continued to take revenge on its owners, until it found a place in the Tretyakov Gallery.

“Hands Resist Him” ​​by Bill Stoneham

This picture rightfully bears the title of the main “art killer”. Its author, American surrealist artist Bill Stoneham, was based on a childhood photo with his sister. And if the photo was light, then the picture turned out to be really gloomy. The fact is that instead of her sister, Stoneham depicted a doll with black eyes, and in the background was not a beautiful landscape, but a dark door with children’s hands. It bothers even after describing the canvas, but more – more. All the owners of the picture were followed by failures. The first buyer was an art historian and owner of the Los Angeles Times. He died a few weeks after taking it. Later, the painting was bought by actor John Marley, who died after undergoing open-heart surgery. After a while, a man found the canvas in an abandoned brewery, took it and hung it in his daughter’s bedroom. They say strange things started in the house the first night. The man’s daughter rushed to the man shouting that the children in the picture were fighting, and claimed they were standing outside the door next time. Then he decided to get rid of the art object.

Mirrored Venus by Diego Velazquez

This work by Spanish artist Diego Velasquez does not look as daunting as the previous work in our selection, but it was no less troublesome. Each owner of the “Mirror Venus” went bankrupt: the first to buy the canvas was a merchant from Madrid, but soon pirates attacked his ship, he lost all his money and was forced to sell a masterpiece of painting. Then the owner of the holds in the harbor bought it, but soon there was a fire due to the storm and everything burned. After that, the painting was sold at auction to another rich man. He was killed in his own home a few days later. Such cases occurred until in 1906 a girl in a London gallery cut a painting with a knife because she believed she was cursed. “Venus” was later restored and did not bring further misfortune.

The Adoration of Sorcerers by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

The Adoration of the Magi did not bring death, destruction, or fire to its possessors; The table was accused of bringing infertility. The fact is that the artist painted the Virgin Mary from her cousin, who could not have children. That’s why the picture got such a bad reputation. In every house she was in, women began to experience health problems, pregnancy was terminated, and reproductive system problems began. The series of curses continued until the Adoration of the Magi was purchased by architect Jacob van Kampen, who had three children.