"Crying Boy" paintings blamed for fires

 In the 1950s, an Italian painter named Giovanni Bragolin created a series of  maudlin paintings of tearful little boys. The boys were staring directly ahead, which made them appear to be looking straight into the eyes of whoever viewed the painting, and created the "it's eyes are following me" effect. 

These paintings were licensed and distributed worldwide, and became a popular item of mass produced art in the 1950s and 1960s. And that's where things got weird.

An urban legend quickly arose, that these paintings were tied to house fires. If you hung a painting of a crying boy, so the legend said, your house would catch fire - but the painting would survive unscathed.

This legend grew for years, particularly in England. The Sun held an event in 1985 wherein painting owners could "donate" their paintings to be burned en masse in a bonfire. This would reputedly lift the curse and break the cycle.

More recently, Steven Punt investigated this legend for his radio show "Punt PI." He found that the paintings are indeed quite fire-retardant, possibly due to a safety varnish. It also helps that they are printed on compressed board, which is not nearly as flammable as canvas. Punt found that the twine for hanging the painting is the only particularly flammable part. And of course, when the twine breaks, the painting will tend to fall flat on its face on the floor, which will also help save it from damage.

Punt's conclusion was that the legend of the "Crying Boy" painting was just a series of coincidences. But could something more be at work here?