I’m the owner of the ‘haunted’ painting – it’s turned my life upside down: Woman claims £20 portrait of girl she bought from charity shop ‘enchanted’ her mother like Gollum and the One Ring – and now wants a ‘professional’ to ‘lift its curse’

The owner of a ‘cursed’ painting from a charity shop has insisted it has ‘enchanting’ powers reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, claiming it ‘transcended’ her mother, who had begged her to buy it ‘ has.

Zoe Elliott-Brown bought the portrait, which shows a young girl in a red dress staring into the distance, from the Hastings Advice Representation Center (HARC) shop in St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex last month.

When purchasing the painting, she was warned by the charity shop manager that it was ‘possibly cursed’, after the previous owner returned it after claiming it had ‘ruined her life’.

Intrigued by the portrait, Zoe, a 36-year-old caretaker, snapped a photo of it and showed it to her mother Jayne Elliott-Browne, who reportedly became ‘transfixed’ by it and urged her to buy the £20 piece .

Oddly enough, the mother and daughter have now said their lives have been turned upside down, and strange events occur soon after they take the painting home.

When they brought the painting into the living room, their family dog ​​Cilla, a Patterdale Terrier, “immediately” growled at the painting and “wouldn’t go near it.”

Then Jayne, 68, started having hot flashes, became shaky and had to wear four sweaters to keep warm.

Zoe claims that her mother, whose health had taken a turn for the worse, had been “strangely protective” of the painting ever since and continues to stare at it.

Jayne then admitted that she enjoyed “stroking the cheek” of the girl in the photo and thought she had heard knocking at night, despite no one being there.

In an attempt to ‘cleanse’ the painting of its ‘curse’, Zoë has placed it in a box of sage.

The woman from Hastings, East Sussex, said: ‘I’ve never seen my mother crave anything so much. She was fascinated by it, but not in a positive way.

She was strangely protective about it. She stared at it constantly. She brushed her figures over the cheekbones and brushed it, even though it didn’t need to be brushed.

“Any mention of getting rid of it…she got really feisty. It’s like a family heirloom that she’s grown protective of. My mother flat out refused to get rid of the picture.

“I think it’s kind of like the power in Lord of the Rings. It’s definitely very enchanting; it kind of pulls you in, but at the same time you don’t want to be really close to it. It’s almost like Gollum in Lord of the Rings.”

Jayne, a retired office worker, said, “I was quite impressed with it. I felt like she was a very unhappy young girl and you wanted to cheer something up.

“I have a picture of it in my mother’s house and I caress her cheek and I did the same with the girl, because she just seems unhappy.

“There was something that made me want to take her home and cheer her up.

“There were some strange things, someone kept knocking on the door and no one was there.

“I overheated and didn’t feel very well. Personally, I didn’t attribute it to the photo, Zoë did. She’s had a strange feeling about it since it got here.’

However, Zoë is convinced that her mother’s poor health is due to the power of the painting.

She added, “My mom was just really shaky. She started coming out in all that hot sweat and hot flashes. She normally wears four sweaters a day. She was boiling hot.’

The panicked daughter called an ambulance after her mother collapsed in the bathroom, but the ambulance was eventually canceled and she stayed overnight in her flat.

More strange occurrences occurred over the next few days: Zoë came downstairs one morning to find her mother “caressing the cheeks of the painting.”

Zoë said, “It was strange behavior, especially for my mother. She couldn’t remember anything that had happened the night before.

“My mom is still very strange and empty and doesn’t really want to talk about it.”

About two weeks later, Zoe and her partner Ben went for a walk about three miles from her house to see a thunderstorm.

As they entered the clearing, they saw a “great black figure” standing before them.

Zoë added: “We both looked at this figure thing and said ‘what is that’ at the same time.

He grabbed me and we ran back the way we came. (Ben) yelled that it was right behind him.

‘I didn’t think it could have anything to do with the photo, but I’ve never been chased by a dark figure during a thunderstorm.

“It was the most terrifying experience of both of our lives.”

Determined to get rid of the ‘curse’, Zoë drove back to the charity shop the next morning to return the painting.

However, she was shocked to discover a screw in her brand new tires upon arrival.

She warned the charity shop manager to be careful who he sold it to before walking out of the shop.

Intrigued to see if anyone had been brave enough to buy the “twice returned” painting, Zoe returned to the charity shop, but once there she felt compelled to take it home again.

Zoe said, “I don’t think a normal person should start using it as a joke.

“The (manager) had taken it out of the window… and said he really wanted it out of the store. He said technically it’s still yours and asked if I would take it.

“(I wanted to) give it to someone who really understands it and can do something positive with it.

“I thought if I knew my luck some idiot would go get it and try to burn it, and I don’t really want to be left behind with the rest of what the hell is going on.

“Technically, I was the last owner. (I want it) to be handled properly.”

Zoë now hopes to get in touch with a professional who can lift the alleged curse of the painting.

She added, “My friend said when you go to pick it up, seal it in a box and put some sage in it.

‘(I hoped) the sage would clean it up a little. We also put sage around the corners of my mother’s house, which she wasn’t too happy about.’