In the 1950s, an Italian painter known as Bragolin created a series of portraits that would become strangely infamous. His Crying Boy paintings – at least 65 in total – showed tearful children staring mournfully out of the frame. Mass-produced prints of these works soon found their way into homes across Europe and beyond.

Then came the curse.

In September 1985, the British tabloid The Sun reported that firefighters were repeatedly finding undamaged copies of The Crying Boy in the ashes of burned houses. The paper declared the painting cursed, and rumours quickly spread that the prints weren’t just surviving the flames – they were causing them. Panic and intrigue followed.

So, was there really something supernatural about these weepy portraits? Not quite. Later investigations, including one for BBC Radio 4’s Punt PI, showed that the prints were more likely coated with a fire-retardant varnish. When flames consumed a house, the string holding the picture up would burn first, sending the print face-down onto the floor – often leaving it untouched while everything else smouldered.

Still, the story stuck. Even today, The Crying Boy has a reputation as one of the art world’s eeriest objects – part kitsch, part urban legend, part Halloween-ready ghost story.

But maybe that’s the real charm: art isn’t just brushstrokes and varnish, it’s the stories we wrap around it. Even a mass-produced print can spark legends, laughter, and late-night conversations. And really, isn’t that what creativity is all about?