'Cursed' painting from Sussex charity shop sold to top London attraction

The portrait painting of a stern-faced little girl in a red dress was twice returned to a Hastings charity shop after customers spoke of its ‘eerie aura’ saying they could not live with it.

The painting went viral in August after it was pictured in an East Sussex charity shop with a warning on it saying: 'She's back!! Sold twice and returned twice! Are you brave enough?'

The painting had initially been donated to the Hastings Advice Representative Centre in St Leonards-on-Sea.

It was then bought by a woman for £25, but two days later she brought it back as it had scared her. The charity shop at first put the 'possibly cursed' sign on the painting as a bit of a joke

Zoe-Elliott-Brown then bought it but ended up returning it after claiming she was chased by a shadowy black figure. She then decided to re-buy it, but after other strange goings on at home she ended up selling it on eBay.

Owners of the London Bridge Experience and London Tombs bought the infamous spooky portrait of a young stern-faced girl for £1,600 on an online auction.

The tourist attraction says it has had a spell of bad luck after buying the painting. Since picking up the painting both the attraction and its staff have experienced bad luck and spooky occurrences that cannot be explained.

These have included the car picking up the painting breaking down, the person picking up the painting dislocating his shoulder, a dark clothed figure wandering around, water suddenly appearing on the painting with no explanation, technical problems that can't be explained and walls moving.

James Kislingbury, Manager of The London Bridge Experience, said: “We decided on our Halloween theme back in April and came up with the idea of Cir-Cursed about a cursed circus - so when this painting came up for sale it seemed fitting that we'd bid for it.

“I went to pick it up from Hastings and on the way back my car broke down unexpectedly. We then put the painting up in the attraction and water appeared to run down the face of the girl in the picture which was really bizarre.

“Then we started to experience problems, our wifi stopped working, we got a team in overnight and they couldn't find a problem. One hive camera at the back of venue didn't work for three days for no reason and then oddly came back on at 3.30am on a staff members phone.

“All the TV's in the attraction went down and again the tech team came in and couldn't find a reason for them not working, then our washing machine broke down.

“Other spooky things included one of our staff members opening up and seeing a black-skirted figure but there was no one else here.

“A pool of water suddenly appeared on the floor but we are under a bridge so we wouldn't normally see anything like this. The bar manager in our venue Slammers saw lights flashing and staff members having a meeting in the bar suddenly had blocks falling off the wall.

“I went on a holiday to get away from it all and dislocated my shoulder in a freak accident on a water slide and on my way home someone died on a ferry I was on and my flight was delayed, I really did think I'm cursed.

“As the UK's top scare attraction nothing normally scares us we've had previous paranormal experiences but this has been off the scale and even we have been a bit unnerved by it.”

Despite the bad luck the attraction has decided to keep the picture - which now stands in the entrance to The London Bridge Experience up for its Halloween celebrations.

James added: “We're hoping that she (the painting) will finally be able to rest here with us, we are keen to know what the story is behind the painting to have created such unrest.”

Tickets for the Cir-Cursed Adult Halloween Show are available from www.thelondonbridgeexperience.com.

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