Throughout history, artists have depicted the uncanny – from gothic mansions and unsettling figures to dark landscapes you wouldn’t want to be left alone in. With their creepy auras, these artworks can cause the viewer’s spine to tingle. But others have warranted paranormal investigation for strange activity, as well as backstories steeped in terror, mystery and even murder. Here are 10 of the most haunted artworks and objects in the world…

Scariest Paintings and Photographs In The World

1. The Hands Resist Him by Bill Stoneham, 1972

Painted by Bill Stoneham in 1972, ‘The Hands Resist Him’ features the artist himself, as a child, alongside a doll-like girl. Both stand before a darkened window, from which puppet-like hands reach out towards them, as if possessed, knocking and tapping at the glass.  And ever since Stoneham showed it in public, strange and unsettling things started to happen to those associated with it.

In 1974 the painting was exhibited in Charles Feingarten’s gallery where it was purchased by the actor John Marley, famous for his role as the movie producer in The Godfather. That gallery show also led to the painting’s first press mention: a review in the Los Angeles Times by noted art critic Henry Seldis. Between 1978 and 1984, all three of these men died.

The painting’s critic, Seldis, died in 1978.

The art dealer Charles Feingarten, who first hung it in his gallery, died in 1981.

And then its owner, Marley, died in 1984.

It would be another 26 years before Stoneham heard of his painting again. Unbeknownst to him, it had been abandoned behind a California brewery turned art space. But in the 2000s it now found a new home – with a Californian couple. However, soon after hanging it on their walls, they decided to auction it off, with a note of warning: 

“WHEN WE RECEIVED THIS PAINTING, WE THOUGHT IT WAS REALLY GOOD ART. AT THE TIME WE WONDERED A LITTLE WHY A SEEMINGLY PERFECTLY FINE PAINTING WOULD BE DISCARDED LIKE THAT. ( TODAY WE DON’T !!! ) ONE MORNING OUR 4 AND 1/2 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER CLAIMED, THAT THE CHILDREN IN THE PICTURE WERE FIGHTING, AND COMING INTO THE ROOM DURING THE NIGHT.

The father of this young girl set up a motion-sensitive camera in her room to show his daughter there was nothing to be afraid of. Instead, he saw the boy crawl from the painting. It’s no surprise the family sold this painting, which has been locked away by its current owner.

But even prints of the painting sold by the artist have caused hauntings. Owners of these prints have reported feeling ill, as if they are about to pass out, having strange visitors at night, and their own children crying in horror when seeing the pictures.

2. ‘The Crying Boy’ by Giovanni Bragolin, 1950s

One of the world’s most infamous cursed artworks is ‘The Crying Boy’, which belongs to a series of paintings on the theme completed by Giovanni Bragolin in the 1950s. During the 1970s, the artist mass produced prints of these paintings, and they soon covered the walls of families’ homes. But not without having a destructive impact.

In 1985, Yorkshire fireman, Peter Hall, was quoted in a national newspaper as saying that fire brigades across the north of England had frequently found undamaged copies of the painting amidst the ruins of burned houses. Hall felt that he had to speak out after his brother, Ron Hall, who did not believe the story, deliberately bought a copy of ‘The Crying Boy’ to disprove the jinx, but found his home in South Yorkshire mysteriously burnt down soon afterwards. Seeing that the picture had been removed intact from the charred ruins, Ron Hall put his boot through it.

Countless other victims saw their homes, restaurants and even hotels reduced to rubble, but the crying boy pictures would survive. In November 1985 one woman from Leeds destroyed her picture of ‘The Crying Boy’, as she seemed certain that its destruction was to blame for the deaths in a fire of her husband and three sons.

3. ‘The Boy’ by unknown artist

This mysterious, undated portrait of an unknown child was discovered in the basement of a historic home in North Wales where the owner had been experiencing strange noises and activity for many years. Paranormal investigator Danny Moss was called out to find out what was happening and, in his own words, was “able to capture the sound of a child in the house despite no children being present.” Distressed by the unnerving activity associated with the painting, the owner wished for it to be removed immediately. Since then, Moss has housed it at his haunted hotel in Cheshire, where visitors (without explanation or encouragement) have been drawn to the child, sometimes leaving gifts, such as flowers and coins, beneath the boy who continues to make sounds without explanation.

4. ‘The Day After’ by Zac Webb, 2019

American artist Zac Webb made a whole series of ghostly paintings during his time at Franklin Castle in Ohio City, which is known as “the most haunted house in Ohio”. In the summer of 2018, Webb was brave enough to begin a residency at the Castle, where every weekend he would seclude himself in the top-floor ballroom, painting from Friday through Sunday. When the residency ended, he made the Castle his permanent home, moving in on Halloween night of 2019 and living there until Halloween night of 2022. As he remembers:

“Those three-plus years within the Castle’s enigmatic walls fuelled a creative outpouring that defies description. Adapting to life alone in a sprawling mansion of over twenty rooms and a notorious reputation for being haunted came with its challenges. Unexplained noises echoed through the halls, lights turned on by themselves, and items would mysteriously shift from where I had last placed them.”

Could these unexplained experiences and sounds be related to the ghosts of the Tiedemann children, 4 of whom died in quick succession during the 1880s? Following their deaths, the children’s father began to transform the house into a castle – adding turrets and gargoyles to its ever more creepy façade.

Visitors who have stayed within the old and stone walls have reported strange sightings and paranormal energy, and some have left in a hurry. However, Webb embraced the house “as a collaborator” in his creative process. As he started painting alone at the castle, he noticed that his style gradually changed over time.  Twisted faces and half-figures emerged from black backgrounds, illuminated by streaks of light.

During his time there, Webb took advantage of the freedom to paint in many of the mansion’s unique spaces. ‘The Day After’ emerged following a night of broken sleep, filled with unsettling dreams and strange sounds reverberating through the mansion’s endless corridors.

5. Haunted baby spirit picture

Only recently, the owners of an innocent looking picture of a baby also decided to sell it, due to feelings that it was cursed. The baby lies, eyes closed, in soft and warm blankets – a picture of peace. But it has caused the family only distress since its discovery.

It was first found locked in the attic of an elderly woman after she passed away by her family. They were not able to identify who their young relative was, but it was discovered in a mourning frame with a lock of hair and a poem. While the frame fell apart and the family threw the other items away with the frame, the picture remains…

The family have reported the sounds of a baby crying coming from the portrait. They have also noticed the smell of something sweet filling the air of the room where the picture is kept, and on occasions experienced cold spots in the room.

6. The Cursed Charity Shop Painting

The unknown girl in this portrait carries an eerie aura as well as a disturbing history, having being returned – twice – to a charity shop for being ‘cursed’.

In 2023, an anonymous owner donated this painting in a batch with seven other pictures to a shop in Hastings. The shop’s manager said he thought all of them looked “quite normal” but said that the girl in this painting “did have a very odd look about her”.

He attached a modest price of £20 to the painting, and displayed it in the window. Soon after, a woman bought it. But just three days later she brought it back to the shop, saying she’d experienced a creepy aura about it and that “Nothing good is going to happen from this picture.”

The store manager tried to give the woman her money back, but she told him to keep it and she left the store. The painting then went back on display in the window for the same £20, this time with an extra note on it reading: “Possibly cursed?”

Ignoring this note, a second woman Zoe Elliott-Brown bought the painting. But, just like the previous owner, she returned it three days later. The charity shop’s manager recalls that she looked “distressed”, and said that “everything had gone wrong.”

As soon as she hung it in her house, Zoe and her mother Jayne began hearing knocking sounds in the night, even though nobody was there. Jayne also began experiencing trembling fits, became freezing cold despite wearing 4 jumpers, and her daughter had to ring for an ambulance after Jayne collapsed in the bathroom.

Not only did these strange happenings continue but two weeks later Zoe and partner Ben headed out for a walk approximately three miles from her home, when a storm started. As they reached the top of a clearing they came across “a big black figure” standing before them. They began running back the way they had come, both screaming, as it chased them. Zoe has said, “It was the most terrifying experience of both our lives.”

Wanting to rid her family of the “curse”, Zoe went back to the charity shop the very next morning to return the picture, and was shocked to find a screw in her new tyres when she arrived. Before leaving the store, she warned the manager to be careful who he sold it to next.

Once again the painting was put back in the sales window for the same original price with a new note reading: “She’s back!!! Sold twice and returned twice! Are you brave enough???”

Zoe returned to the shop a few days later to see if the painting had been sold for a third time. She saw it hadn’t, and the manager  told her he really wanted it gone from the shop and asked her to take it away.

Zoe agreed to take it back, although she sealed it up in a box and put some sage with it. She also put sage all around the corners of her mum’s house.

Putting it in an online auction, she sold it to The London Bridge Experience, where it has continued to have a haunting effect on those who have dealt with it. Upon picking up the portrait, a staff member’s car broke down, and when he went on holiday he dislocated his shoulder in a bizarre waterslide accident, someone died on a ferry where he was a passenger, and his flight was delayed.

From the moment it was placed on site at the London Bridge Experience, paranormal activity has been sparked by this portrait – the WIFI cut off, security cameras stopped working, and televisions turned off…

 7. Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

Ever since photography was invented, spirits have also presented themselves in haunting black and white images, shocking artists behind the lens. From small Edwardian children to women in sweeping gowns, these are figures you wouldn’t want to meet after dark, alone in a creaky old house. Among the most famous is The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, a ghost that reportedly haunts the stately home in Norfolk, sweeping the staircases and rooms in her long, brown dress. She is said to be the apparition of Dorothy Walpole, who was locked in her room by her violent husband after he discovered she had been having an affair.  

The legend of this ghost became one of the most famous hauntings in the United Kingdom when two unsuspecting photographers from Country Life magazine captured her image on camera. It was on September 19, 1936, that Captain Hubert C. Provand, a London-based photographer working for Country Life magazine, and his assistant, Indre Shira, were taking photographs of Raynham Hall for an article. They had already taken a photograph of the Hall’s main staircase and were setting up to take a second when Shira saw “a vapoury form gradually assuming the appearance of a woman” moving down the stairs towards them.

Provand quickly took the cap off the lens while Shira pressed the trigger to activate the camera’s flash. When they developed the negative, it revealed the “Brown Lady” was revealed. The account of Provand and Shira’s ghostly experience at Raynham Hall was published in Country Life magazine on December 26, 1936.

Other sightings of the Brown Lady in her dress have led to staff leaving their jobs at the Hall.

Most Haunted Objects In The World: Creepy Dolls, Puppets and Toys

Dolls, puppets and other smiling toys, too, have earned their place in the realm of the haunted. Here are a few notorious examples that not only send shivers down the spine but have been found to move, speak and swing from ceilings…

8. The Grace Doll

Paranormal experts have travelled from across the globe to meet this porcelain doll, called Grace, who you are now standing in front of. Known as the most haunted toy in Britain, she is kept inside a locked box and under 24 hours surveillance for good reason – given a history of consistent, paranormal activity.

Historically, this Grace Doll was used as a ‘trigger object’ – as a way for paranormal investigators to interact with spirits. She was taken to locations that were believed to be haunted by children and for several years nothing ever happened with the doll.

But during one ghost investigation in North Wales, the item was mysteriously moved off a chair. A video of the event shows paranormal expert Danny Moss holding a Crucifix and asking “what do you want to burn” and her voice chillingly replies “your eyes”.

He is among experts who believe the spirit of a witch from the 1600s attached itself to the doll during this ghost hunt.

For the next 3 days very strange things began to happen with Grace, including the sound of 3 knocks coming from her case, the same sinister voice speaking, and people who looked at it experienced the sensation of their eyes burning.

After these events, it was housed inside Tatton Old Hall for a number of years. During its time there it was recorded on film creating the same 3 knocking sounds. The same voice was also hard several times saying “release me”, recorded on camera which shows that nobody else was in the room on these occasions.

Grace has since been moved to a haunted hotel in Chester – where more sinister voices have been heard coming from her. In recent years, she’s also been heard mimicking children’s voices, and casting demonic manifestations, while continuing to knock three times from inside her locked box.

Visitors who have dared to enter Room 8 in which she is kept have experienced the sensation of their eyes burning. While others have become addicted and obsessed by her, deeply affected by being in her presence, made to feel sick, and afterwards suffered haunting dreams and nightmares.

9. Clown puppet

This clown puppet toy once used to hang from the ceiling of Tatton Old Hall, where a camera was left to monitor the room. One day when the caretaker came into the room, the item mysteriously started swinging and the caretaker began to act very strangely, and stood staring at the item for 4 minutes almost as if in a trance. Since then, the sound of tapping has been heard coming from the box case in which it has been locked…  

10. Willow

The Willow doll was brought into an antique shop in South England where the husband and wife antique dealers soon began to notice strange activity happening including the item moving and the sound of a woman humming. As complete sceptics, they were left astonished when they witnessed the item move in front of them unexplainably, forcing them to sell her. Willow has since been caught moving on camera a number of times…

These haunted artworks and cursed objects have been included in my curation for an exhibition The House of Curses, taking place from 31 October – 2 November 2024 in Soho, London, as part of The Kraken Rum’s annual Screamfest experience.