No, photos do not depict a dead child’s body drained of blood harvested for youth serum

Context

On May 8, 2024, a post on X (formerly Twitter) circulated, claiming to show a child’s dead body and claiming that the child had been drained of blood, which would be used as “Adrenochrome”—a youth serum to be injected into clients for large fees. As of May 10, 2024, the post had garnered 346.2 views and around 1,300 reposts.

Screenshot of the viral X post (Source: Screenshot/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

In fact

Using Google Reverse Image search, we determined that this image actually depicts a prop from an exhibit displayed in Barcelona’s Palau Robert museum in 2009. The image was originally uploaded to Flickr in 2009. The exhibition was called “L’Art de l’engany,” meaning “The Art of Deception,” and was used to display lifelike creations made for film, largely by David Martì and Montse Ribè. 

The original photo uploaded to Flickr on May 30, 2009. (Source: Flickr/Sebastian Niedlich/Screenshot)

Photos on the Palau Robert Museum website also confirm the existence of this prop within this exhibition.

This particular figure was created as a prop for J.A. Bayona’s 2007 film, The Orphanage. We reviewed famous clips from the film and confirmed that this was, in fact, a major prop used in the film.

Left: a photograph showing the museum exhibit at Palau Robert, Barcelona, showing the prop. Right: the prop being carried in the movie The Orphanage. (Source: Palau Robert/YouTube/Markup by Logically Facts)

Adrenochrome is part of a conspiracy theory that claims that the wealthy elite harvest children’s blood to inject into themselves as a youth serum. It is linked to other QAnon conspiracies. Logically has previously fact-checked these claims (which you can read about here and here) and found them to be false. No such serum exists.

The verdict

This picture was taken by a visitor to the Palau Robert Museum at an exhibit about special effects in film.