The Portrait of the Crying Boy

This is the story of the Crying Boy or, more specifically, The Portrait of the Crying Boy.  According to legend, a fire gutted a home in 1985 destroying everything inside with one strange exception... pulled from the wreckage was an odd painting of a crying child.  The painting was uncharred and completely undamaged aside from a little soot.

As the story goes, the painting passed hands and, in 1988, there was another fire in the home of the new owners and, again, the sole surviving artifact was the painting of the crying boy.

The myth says that the painting of the crying boy was found in the remains of several homes gutted by fire.  One woman even said that she only had the painting for six months before her home was destroyed.

With any urban legend, there is a great deal of embellishment when it comes to the story to the point that it's almost become impossible to tell fact from fiction.  It's possible that there was more than one "crying boy" painting and it's possible that the lacquer on the painting repelled the flames long enough for it to survive.

Whatever the case... fact or fiction... there is one fact that is both insidious and comical at the same time.  When a retiring Yorkshire Fireman was given a framed copy of the painting as a going away gift, he politely refused it.