My ‘creepy’ doll painting is cursed – my beloved pet died and a plague of insects infested my home when I bought it

A COLLECTOR claims a "cursed" doll painting brought a plague of insects into his bedroom and killed his pet hamster hours after he brought it home.

Dan Smith said buying it was the "ultimate bad decision" as it wreaked havoc on his life, costing him sleep, his health and his peace of mind.

Dan - thought to be an alias - explains in how he ignored a warning from a flea market stallholder that "no good can come from this painting".

Now he is trying to get rid of it, claiming he fears he will go insane if it stays in his house.

He says: "As a collector of weird stuff, I was struck by the strangeness of the painting.

"It looked adorable, with two innocent-seeming dolls portrayed in it… but she was right - don’t be deceived.

"I don’t know whose cursed blood was mixed in with the paint to create this piece, but its powers are strong."

It shows an old fashioned doll and a ragdoll on a peaceful green background, which "reminded me of spring, of rebirth".

But after a nightmare few days, Dan adds: "How wrong I was as this painting only represents the ends of things.

"For me, it was my ability to sleep, my pet, my health, my peace of mind and if the painting doesn’t go away soon, my sanity."

Dan, based in the US, said he hit "an epic losing streak" as soon as he took the artwork home.

That night he felt "an invisible river of chills" and later woke to find an insect crawling over his face.

Horrifyingly, he claims he then found a crack in the wall with maggots and adult insects crawling out from behind.

In the morning he hung the painting on his living room wall.

Moments later, he says he found his beloved hamster dead with the same insects wriggling out of its mouth.

'Unleash the evil'

Dan says he is now haunted by the painting, unable to sleep for five days and plagued by "sickness and uneasiness".

"But why pass it on and continue such a terrible legacy you ask?" Dan goes on.

"Why not destroy it? Well sure, setting the painting on fire could rid the world of the wickedness brought about by the piece, but it could just as easily unleash the evil.

"Who’s to say that by burning it I’m not just going to make things ten times worse?

"No, I don’t want to risk that, I’d rather sell it to some poor soul who doesn’t believe this story, or, even scarier, some brave soul who does."

The painting is believed to date from 1967 and is signed with the scrawled initials MNP.

Dan says it could stand for "Many Nightmares & Phobias, which is what the artwork leads to."

The auction starts at $50 and the seller adds: "But before you bid... you've been warned!"

Last year The Sun told how the owners of four "haunted" dolls said they had ruined their lives.

And a woman was terrified after finding a "haunted" photo inside the case of a second-hand DVD of horror film The Ring.