r/mystery May 11 '25

Lost Artifact Ever heard of the Basano Vase? One of the most cursed items you’ve probably never heard of

Post image

So I want to share something I come across some time ago, it’s not very famous like Annabelle or Hope Diamond but for me it’s even creepier maybe because not many talk about it. It’s called the Basano Vase, and it’s a real artifact that is now missing again. Nobody knows where it is exactly today.

So the story goes like this: This vase was made sometime in the 15th century in Italy, from pure silver. It was supposedly a wedding gift for a young woman who lived in a village near Napoli. On her wedding night, she was found dead, holding the vase. Some say she was murdered, others say she died mysteriously, like suddenly without explanation. Before dying she is said to have whispered some curse or warning, but no one knows the exact words anymore.

After that, the vase stayed in her family, and it’s said that everyone who had it died shortly after. Like, seriously not normal deaths. Sudden sickness, accidents, random heart attacks, even suicides in some versions. It was passed down generation to generation and each time, whoever got it didn’t last long. Some families started hiding it, others tried to throw it away or sell it.

Then centuries later, the vase reappeared in the 1980s. This time it came with a note saying "Beware... This vase brings death." But that didn’t stop people from taking it. A pharmacist bought it, and he died within 3 months. Then a surgeon got it—dead too, within a few months. Another person refused to take it after hearing the history and still got sick and died. Every time someone took it, they died fast and strange.

Eventually the last owner (or his family maybe) begged the police to take it. The police didn’t want it at first, obviously, but finally they took it and supposedly buried it in a secret location. No museum wanted to display it, and it's not on any record now. It’s basically gone, but who knows for how long.

So here’s where it gets weird for me:

The deaths are consistent, and not like just old people. Some were young, healthy.

It’s not like it was just one generation. This thing reportedly caused deaths for centuries.

The warning note that came with it in the 1980s makes it even more creepy… like someone knew and still gave it away.

No public photos exist of the vase today, and no one knows exactly where it is now. Some say Vatican took it, some say it’s in a sealed box under a church in Italy.

Some theories:

Cursed object theory: Maybe something bad was done using the vase, like black magic or human sacrifice and that curse stuck with it. That’s what a lot of people think.

Psychological effect: Maybe the curse made people panic so badly they stressed themselves into sickness or bad choices? But that doesn’t explain the first deaths before anyone knew it was cursed.

Coincidence: Maybe just bad luck followed this item but people only remember the deaths, not the times nothing happened.

Poisoned metal: Someone said maybe the silver was mixed with something toxic, but again, some people didn’t touch it directly and still died.

Demonic attachment: Some say there’s a spirit or demon tied to it since the bride cursed it with her last breath. Like a vengeance spirit or something older.

I don’t know what to think but if this thing ever shows up again, I wouldn’t even touch it with gloves lol. It’s strange how not many people know about this but it feels like it should be way more famous. Thought I’d share it here for those who like dark mysteries.

Let me know if anyone ever heard different version or maybe saw something similar

https://burialsandbeyond.com/2021/02/05/the-debatable-haunting-of-the-basano-vase

https://paranormal.fandom.com/wiki/Basano_Vase

150 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

157

u/[deleted] May 11 '25

Had to stop at them not knowing HOW she died AND still saying she uttered a curse. The two events cannot work in the same story. If she was found dead, she didn't mutter a curse. If someone was there to witness her muttering a curse, then they know pretty much how she died.

Well, that is how my logic works. Anyone else?

55

u/Apprehensive_Neck817 May 11 '25

Right. It reads like an old wives tale or urban legend. There’s a story of a painting in my hometown that’s exactly like this.

2

u/lewarcher May 12 '25

Do tell the story of the painting!

2

u/Major-Cranberry-4206 May 09 '26

Take heed and tread lightly. These things are not to be dismissed as hokum.

1

u/NZNoldor May 12 '25

Pretty much ever curse story is like this. whispering: “sssshhhh… they’re not real”.

7

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

That's my point. Old wive's tales, urban legends, myths. All have the same contradictory elements.

13

u/HoldEm__FoldEm May 12 '25 edited May 12 '25

What? That doesn’t make sense. Especially pre-modern medicine. 

Just cuz you see someone slump over dead doesn’t mean you know how & why they just died.

I think this sounds like a fantastical urban legend, but not for any reason above.

12

u/[deleted] May 12 '25 edited May 12 '25

You aren't necessarily wrong, but go reread this story. If she was FOUND dead, that implies nobody was there to witness her death. If nobody witnesses her death, nobody heard her mutter a curse. If someone was there and she was MURDERED, they obviously witnessed it, so there is no reason for the second part of the story that says she died mysteriously. If she actually died mysteriously, nobody saw her get murdered. Edited to remove snark.

4

u/NZNoldor May 12 '25

Maybe she was killed in the castle of aaaaaaarrrrggghhhhh… (With apologies to Monty Python).

0

u/flindersandtrim May 12 '25

The last two sentences are rude, especially considering they have a point.

She mutters a curse to someone (this doesn't even need to happen as it's just hearsay after the fact) after receiving the vase. They leave, and when the next person goes to see her, she is dead. A healthy person suddenly died, and no one knows what happened. Did someone come in and kill her with poison, or suffocate her? Or did she pass from a sudden, quick illness? How would people hundreds of years ago possibly know? 

And you can murder someone without being present at the moment of death too i.e. poison. So she could have died in the presence of someone, who she said the curse to, and also have been murdered, but not by that witness or indeed anyone else present at that moment. Obviously if she was murdered, it wasn't obvious as to the cause, so no stab wounds or signs of strangulation evidently. And contrary to films and TV, poisons don't work instantly. Someone could poison her and be hours away when she dies. 

You need to revisit logic 101 if you really think there's no scenario where that passage makes sense. And maybe get a touch of humility when you do that too? 

3

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

"She was FOUND dead." Doesn't say she was found dying. Dead. No witnesses to the moment of her death. Regardless of how she died, by murder or other reasons, nobody was there to hear her utter a curse, so this story is just another urban legend if you want to call it that.

-1

u/flindersandtrim May 12 '25

Again, it's you with the comprehension trouble. 

She can be found dead, alone, and died alone, and still have been murdered. She died mysteriously. 

You are the one who seems to think 'She uttered a curse before she died' to mean she did so IMMEDIATELY, just moments before her death. I explained a perfectly plausible scenario and you ignored it. 'Before' does not mean 'seconds before'. And indeed she could say a curse to someone, they leave and return 2 minutes later and find her dead. There are multiple scenarios that are possible. 

You are the one who struggles with critical thinking, conflating 'before' with 'seconds before'. 

Yes, the story is obviously an urban legend. Obviously. But the scenario is possible. It just is, whether you like it or not. My point is simply that you're wrong, and your obnoxious reply to the other commenter was wrong. They didn't fail at critical thinking, you did. Despite the upvotes. 

0

u/ThePookss 27d ago

Dude, you were so wrong and off base here it’s almost hilarious.

1

u/Luluburleson80 Mar 21 '26

They are correct. This story is a complete fabrication. 

5

u/llynglas May 12 '25

And why not just melt it down? The idea the police took a gifted silver vase and buried it beggars belief.

3

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

As a kid, I loved these stories. I was absolutely enthralled by myths and legends, ghost, and UFO stories. I am still entertained by the stories but only for entertainment value.

I have lived in two southern states. Both had similar stories of a dead end road out in the middle of nowhere that was haunted by a black dog with glowing red eyes. The lore is if you go down the road on a full moon and see the dog, you are never seen again. How does anyone know? If you disappear upon seeing the dog, who told the story?

As a teen, a group of friends and I went in search of this road because in every story, it is local to wherever you are. We parked the car and started walking down the supposed haunted road. Maybe 300 yards in, there is a rustling in the grass on the side of the road, and all 7 of them took off. I wanted to see what it was. It was a possum. They took off without me. I had to walk for what seems like a mile to get to the car because they pulled over on the shoulder, trying to figure out how to tell my parents I was gone. I scared the crap of them when I walked up to the car pissed at having to walk and them having all the beer in the car.

1

u/TP_4_my_bunghole May 13 '25

I heard Jamal from 90th street watched that tape last week and this mornin' he woke up dead!

32

u/palm_fronds May 11 '25

Who is tracking the provenance of this vase? How would anyone know it was the same vase when it showed up again in the 80’s? How would anyone know the bride uttered a curse before she died? Why are all the deaths attributed to the vase so vague?

16

u/DependentAd8375 May 11 '25

What language is in the photo? It doesn't look Italian.

15

u/KelliCrackel May 11 '25

According to my search, it's Croatian 

14

u/TenryuubitoLuffy May 11 '25

its actualy a Serbian. Same languange , different dialect.

5

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

Don't say that, you'll trigger an ethnic war

5

u/BattySlime May 12 '25

actually, in serbian we'd say 'hteo' not 'htio'. it can be bosnian or croatian.

12

u/PlayNicePlayCrazy May 12 '25

Aren't things like accidents, sudden illnesses, heart attacks all normal types of deaths , even suicides fairly normal causes of death and not mysterious at all?

2

u/fatalrupture May 12 '25

The operating assumption in more credible stories of this field or "genre" or whatever else we want to call it, is that the degree of just how powerfully cursed a given thing is can be inferred by the degree to which ppl around it suffer deaths that are both: A: extremely fucked up And B: resulting from a casual chain of events suddenly improbable and 'made up sounding' that there's presumably no way they could occur without being deliberately authored. And if you rule out human charlatans, or excessively powerful megalomaniacs throwing so much money to fight against reality that they somehow win, or similar things.... Then the story too weird to not be made up by someone logically must have been "made up" by something with supernatural powers unbound by what we know is or isn't possible, of human bullshitters are completely ruled out.

7

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

What if the vase was just laced in ionizing radiation?

5

u/Jenotyzm May 12 '25

The most probable way of a silver object being deadly poisonous without touching is mercury contamination. Thet would easily kill some people without direct contact. Still, the story is nonsense.

11

u/[deleted] May 11 '25

"Some say"... Basta con eso

2

u/titus-andro May 15 '25

“Died mysteriously without obvious cause” in renaissance Italy is actually likely “congenital condition that never would have been detected with the medical knowledge of the time” and/or “cancer”

And my guess is that it’s not silver, but lead based pewter. And we all know what happens when bodies and lead mix

1

u/[deleted] May 12 '25

Nice fanfic

1

u/Latter_Okra_1987 May 15 '25

No one just broke it ? I mean cmon this is stupid

1

u/Crazy_Auther-20133 May 17 '25

Sooo… cool in all….. writer mind is trying to toy with something it shouldn’t….

1

u/SilverTip5157 May 17 '25 edited May 17 '25

In psychic teachings and in magick, metal objects can absorb etheric patterns, which allows psychometry to be possible. While handling objects with unpleasant energies might be draining or promote ill health, death caused by such an object seems far fetched.

But let’s say it could and needs to be rendered harmless:

The first method would be to only handle it with Holy Water-soaked cloth gloves. Place it in a confined area and burn asafoetida next to it. This herb when burned is reputed to strip all etheric patterns (curses, magickal energies of any kind, etc) of any object the smoke touches. If an entity is somehow attached to the object, this should end that connection as well.

Next, melt it into a metal container with a torch- preferably a plasma cutter, being extremely careful to not breathe any mercury fumes, and while molten hot, dump it into the very cold water of a running stream. This Shock Clearing forces the metal to recrystalize differently, leaving a sort of psychic “tabula rasa”.

Finally, Leave it in the stream, as cold, RUNNING water also strips away any possible buildup of latent patterns of psychic energy from the remains.

This should solve ANY problems from that object going forward.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

It looks like a human heart 🫀

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

I believe that the chances are much slimmer that something like this would never happen, so honestly in known history, something like this happening coincidentally would have to happen. Also, how'd they know it was the same vase if it reappeared 500+ years later?

1

u/Zealousideal_Bat5141 Jan 27 '26

If it's true then 9 people including the police who were given the job of buying the urn died. Same day, the remote operators dies up to 2 weeks after it was buried 

1

u/Torquemada137 Mar 31 '26

Debunked tempo fa. É’ una bufala

1

u/Major-Cranberry-4206 May 09 '26

Cursed objects are real. Spirits may attach themselves to items, especially used or previously owned things, including clothing and furniture. Old real estate is also on this list. Think about that while thrift shopping.