My mother Natasha is Russian born but grew up in the USA from the age 3, and always had the love of anything old and unusual when it came to furniture and artworks. Something that seems to have rubbed off on me a little.
My parents would regularly go to auctions and estate sales and the like to purchase interesting pieces for their Business. It was rare that anything purchased at these sales ever made it home to become part of our house unless it was out of the ordinary or my parents liked it too much to part with it.
My childhood home looked like a cross between a mad man's idea of a yard sale and a antiques market belonging to an insane hoarder. But it made for good fun and interesting conversation. And many a good fort.
None of the furniture or artworks previous had bothered me as far as I can remember until my mother purchased a painting by an unknown artist (it's never been signed and research has never uncovered who painted it or who the subject actually is). All we know is that the family who put it in the auction bought the home they had found it in and didn't like the painting or several pieces of furniture that the last owners had left behind. So off to the sales they went. It was a rather large lot of over 50 items. My mother purchased the painting and a sideboard full of silverware and plates of varying ages locked inside (we got them open after we got it home. It was strange as my mother had been told it was empty. Not so much as it turned out.).
The painting is of a women of about 30 years old (maybe older but it's hard to tell) wearing a long blue-grey gown standing in a veranda of an old house. Next to her is a table with a tea set and kettle and what looks like some cake or sandwiches on a plate. There are some flowers and a chair and part of a window. Whoever did the painting had a lot of talent as the detail is incredible. It was probably painted around 1900-1910. Judging by the fashion she's wearing.
My mother brought it home and we hung it in the hallway next to my parent's bedroom between the main bathroom and a little room my dad used to do his paperwork in.
I felt very strange around the painting from the first day it was hanging up. The hallway in summer was comfortable and not too warm but after the painting was hung up the area around the painting turned almost ice cold. Passing the painting I'd get goose bumps on whatever exposed skin I had.
I also started feeling like the lady in the painting was watching me. My twin sisters started saying that they didn't like looking at the painting as it made them feel uncomfortable and like they weren't meant to be around it. My baby brother would walk on the other side of the hallway to it. And when asked why he'd say he didn't like the lady and that he was cold when he looked at her (he was 5 at the time nearly 6).
Soon it went past just feelings in the hallway. At night we'd start hearing whispers that hadn't been there previous. Our house already had its share of spooky behaviour we had got used to but this was new.
Movement of a flash of blue-grey like the dress out of the corner of your eye. A strange touch occasionally in the hallway when no one else was around. This may sound like something from Tales From the Crypt but I assure you this isn't something I saw on tv. I only wished sometimes it was.
After my father (6'5", 350 pounds of him) got a cold hand run up his back when he was in the shower was any real notice of what we all had said to our parents. Used to other ghosts in the house we at first thought oh it's just another spirit making itself known to us as its new here.
But then things got bad. Fast.
- My baby brother (let's call him Adam) was tripped on the stairs and pushed by a cold hand when he tried to get up again.
- The big fern we had in the hall next to the painting suddenly started dying. It was over 20 years old and had no previous problems. When moved away from the painting it went back to being fine. It's still alive today but one side of it looks a little mangled (the side facing the painting never was the same. The branches grew back weird like something had infected them. It was checked out and tested by plant specialist and they couldn't find anything wrong with the old plant).
- Our dogs Frankie and Dex (both terrier mixes) wouldn't go past the painting without whining or growling at it. They were normally very placid and gentle dogs. Our aunt's dog Lula (a poodle) had to be carried past it when we used to babysit her she wouldn't walk past it or even look at it.
- Our cats tried to claw at it one time when it fell of its hook onto the ground. Our normally placid Maine coon cats Sally and Meg both went nuts trying to scratch it until we took it away.
- It started coming off the hook every night and sat against the wall upright every morning when no one touched it.
My mother a very spiritual person who put up with our friendly spirits in the house with a grain of salt as they didn't bother her decided that this painting had to go and something was wrong with it. To which we all agreed.
So off to the auctions it went. Several times. My mother who knew the buyers found out they only kept it a month (they too heard whispers and their cat also attacked the painting) and gave it to a neighbour who liked it. The neighbour sold it on after her dog freaked out around it.
It kept getting sold on or auctioned or given away until 2014 when a man who collected art in Florida bought the painting and did not know of its history. Having again tried to research it's past. He only found out it was possibly a painting of an artist's wife who died young. I don't know if it's true of not. There is no real record of the artwork anywhere and it's not signed. The man who owned it last I heard keeps it in his basement, as it frightened his grandchildren. He says he won't sell it on and keeps it locked up. I think too he knows something isn't right with it. I'm worried as he's old what's going to happen when he dies.
This painting I think isn't safe. Either a ghost is in it or attached to it and it's not friendly. So please anyone of you see this painting let me know, it really should be destroyed.
I know it probably sounds like a made up story for kids. And a adult man like myself shouldn't be weary of a old oil painting of someone Unknown.
This painting is dangerous. Please destroy it if you buy it. It's really not worth the trouble.
I'm sorry it's a long story. I wasn't going to post it until I talked to Adam about the painting last night and it still scares him. And he loved exploring abandoned places and doesn't get frightened.
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