During the 1950s-1970s, paintings of crying children were popular and were readily available in stores throughout Europe and America.
Some of the more famous paintings were called the Crying Boy paintings, and they were signed by Giovanni Bragolin who was a mysterious figure that no one knew anything about at the time. It was not until 1995 when George Mallory who was a school teacher, discovered that the mysterious painter of the Crying Boy paintings was really Franchot Seville.
Franchot Seville's paintings featured a variety of crying children who were looking straight ahead. Many believe the paintings are of children from an orphanage in Spain that was later burned down in the late 1970s. Legend claims the orphanage was burned down by one of the children Franchot Seville painted.
In the 1980s, fire departments began to notice something unusual happening. Houses were burning down and the fires appeared to start mysteriously, and the only thing they would find unscathed were paintings of crying children. The paintings were all signed by Giovanni Bragolin. It became so concerning for fire departments that a local fire station contacted a newspaper and warned that the Crying Boy paintings were cursed and to remove them from their homes. The paper wrote a warning "Let all other heed warning, and get rid of their own giant paintings of crying children immediately."
