I read about your fun with plaster from Heather. I realize this isn’t the problem you were having but I found a great item to use when attaching things to/thru plaster walls in my old house. Buy some long screws designed for attaching drywall to metal studs. They are self-drilling and since they are meant to drill into metal they have a hardened point that cuts through the plaster nicely with minimal dust and almost no chipping/cracking/blowout at the point of entry without having to drill a pilot hole. They are fine thread so you have to be careful not to strip the stud if there will be any pull on the screw but if it’s simply a vertical load like a picture, you can use these instead of picture hangers and not even care if they are in a stud or not. I even use one as a pilot drill for mounting bigger things or anchors since I don’t have to switch the drill between drill bit and phillips bit and if it dulls it’s a lot cheaper than drill bits.

For an example of what I’m talking about go to mcmaster.com and look up p/n 90093A152. Home Despot and Lowe’s carry them, usually only in #6 and #8 with limited lengths available.