The Hands Resist Him is a realistic painting created by Bill Stoneham in 1972. It depicts a young boy and a female doll standing outside of a glass door, with many hands pressed against the other side.[1][2][3]
History[]
The painting was first displayed at the Feingarten Gallery in Beverly Hills, California, during the early 1970s. A one-man Stoneham show at the gallery, which included the piece, was reviewed by the art critic at the Los Angeles Times. During the show, the painting was purchased by actor John Marley, notable for his role as Jack Woltz in The Godfather. Sometime after Marley's death, the painting was found at the site of an old brewery by an elderly Californian couple (as stated in their original eBay listing). The painting appeared on the auction website eBay in February 2000. According to the seller, the aforementioned couple, the painting carried some form of curse.[1]
News of the listing was quickly spread by internet users who forwarded the link to their friends or wrote their own pages about it. Some people claimed that simply viewing the photos of the painting made them feel ill or have unpleasant experiences. Eventually, the auction page was viewed over 30,000 times.[1]
After an initial bid of $199, the painting eventually received 30 bids and sold for $1,025.00. The buyer, Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, eventually contacted Bill Stoneham and related the unusual story of its auction on eBay and their acquisition of it. He reported being quite surprised by all the stories and strange interpretations of the images in the painting. According to the artist, the object presumed by the eBay sellers to be a gun is actually nothing more than a dry cell battery and a tangle of wires.[1]
Stoneham recalls that both the owner of the gallery in which the painting was first displayed, and the art critic who reviewed it, died within one year of coming into contact with the painting.[1]
Legend[]
A few years after the painting was sold, the art critic Henry Seldis, died. Then the gallery owner died. Then, in 1984, John Marley died. [3]
These deaths led many people to believe the painting was haunted and cursed. It was later sold on eBay in the year 2000, the owners claiming it was haunted.
Their eBay description made a series of claims that the painting was cursed or haunted. Included in those claims were that the characters in the painting moved during the night, and that they would sometimes leave the painting and enter the room in which it was being displayed. Also included with the listing were a series of photographs that were said to be evidence of an incident in which the female doll character threatened the male character with a gun that she was holding, causing him to attempt to leave the painting. A disclaimer was included with the listing absolving the seller from all liability if the painting was purchased.[1]
Notable Accounts[]
The new owners were trying to sell it because, they said, it was haunted. They claimed the boy and the doll in the picture would fight with each other during the night, terrifying their four-year-old daughter. They set up a motion-sensing camera in the room for three nights and claimed they captured the boy in the picture leaving the frame and coming into the room, apparently fleeing in terror.
Trivia[]
- More than 30,000 people visited the eBay page, with many reporting that just looking at the painting made them feel ill[3]
- The inspiration for “The Hands Resist Him” came from an old photograph and a poem[2]
- In May 2016, D.K. O'Neil published a book about the painting, titled The Hands Resist Him: Be Careful What You Bid For[2]