Your True Tales
April 2005 – Story of the Month

Haunted Painting
by Jack

We have painting that was purchased in Greenwich Village in 1960 by my wife’s father. The subject was identified as “Contessa Della Costa.” Translated from Italian it means “Countess of the Coast.” Della Costa, from research, references the Tuscany Region. The artist signature on the back of the canvas appears to be Penealbus and bears the date 1783. No information can be found about the artist, and the subject appears to be of lesser Italian nobility, possibly related to Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (1667-1743), the second child of Cosimo III and Marguerite Louise of Orléans married to Kürfürst Johann Wilhelm von Sachsen.

Since the painting was first purchased in 1960, family, houseguests and house staff have reported that the painting was either possessed or haunted. These claims, including dreaming about The Contessa, being awoken at night by her presence and the sense that they were being watched or followed by her and experiencing acts by unseen hands, were frequent and common. These incidents, for the family, settled over time; houseguests, however, continued to have these experiences. Everyone notes, regardless of having any experiences or not, that the eyes are fixed on them no matter where they may be in the room in which the painting hangs.

My wife, who once owned a ranch, hung the painting in the guest house above the bed. Those who slept there would move to the trailer mid-night because of the painting and the experiences they attributed to it.

When I was first shown the painting, I said something very uncomplimentary about the subject, as the manner in which she clutched the tatting bobbin coupled with her expression was disconcerting to say the least. That night I awoke to see her standing at the side of the bed with an expression of great disdain, tatting bobbin in hand. I passed it off to being subconsciously influenced by the stories associated with the painting coupled with an overactive imagination resulting in a waking dream from which I promptly went back to sleep. Time would indicate that quick assumption was wrong. My wife informed me that I had “the dream,” as it was referred to, that most that had slept in the house where the painting was hung had experienced.

Apparently she doesn’t suffer change well. Shortly after we married and the painting was brought into our new home, not yet hung, we would come home to find lights on or off, doors open or closed and items moved or missing. This continued until she was prominently hung over the fireplace. She seemed to settle and there was an uneasy truce. Friends and houseguests, as those before, continued to be unsettled by her. When we moved into our present home the mischief with lights, doors and small items resumed until she was hung in the living room. However, when she was relocated to the hall recently, the incidents reoccurred with incredible intensity and have, for now, settled.

Paranormal activity is viewed by some as very real while naysayers consider it purely subjective. I scoffed initially and, after personal experience, now believe differently.

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