OBJECT FILE
The Crying Boy prints
FOLLOWUnited Kingdom
THE OBJECT
A mass-produced print of a painting of a tearful boy by the Italian painter Bruno Amadio ('Giovanni Bragolin', 1911–1981), sold widely from the 1950s in many versions. There is no single object: the entry stands for the prints.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
EXPLAINED. On 5 September 1985 The Sun reported an Essex firefighter's claim that undamaged copies were often found in burned-out houses; by November the paper was holding mass bonfires of readers' copies. In 2010 BBC Radio 4's Punt PI had prints tested at the Building Research Establishment: the varnish contained fire retardant, and the hanging string burned first, so the print fell face down and was protected. Names given to the child and fires at the painter's studio first appear in a 2000 book and are, per David Clarke, untrue.
WHERE IT IS NOW
Unknown — kept by Many private owners. United Kingdom.
PROVENANCE · 2 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1950 — CURRENT LOCATION
POSSIBLE LOCATIONSold as mass-produced prints
United Kingdom · not placed on the map
Date approximate: 'from the 1950s'.
Source: Wikipedia, The Crying Boy ('widely distributed from the 1950s onwards')
1985 — CURRENT LOCATION
The Sun's reader bonfires (copies destroyed)
United Kingdom · not placed on the map
The story began 5 September 1985; the bonfires followed by late November.
Source: Wikipedia, The Crying Boy (The Sun, 5 September 1985; bonfires by the end of November)
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
REPORT AN EXPERIENCE →Nobody has filed an encounter with this object yet.
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