LIGHTS, camera, auction: some of cinema’s most famous costumes are to come under the hammer in London in what is likely to be one of the biggest sales of film memorabilia, writes Maurice Chittenden.

The ultimate dressing-up box will include outfits from such movies as Star Wars, Titanic, Indiana Jones, Superman and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. They are being put up for sale by Angels, the London-based supplier of costumes to the film, theatre and television industry.

The auction is expected to make millions of pounds. Pride of place among the lots will be the Jedi knight cloak worn by Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. It has a reserve price of £50,000 but could go for much more.

The brown hooded cloak was rediscovered in 2005 after going missing for nearly 30 years. It had been provided for Guinness to wear while filming at Elstree and Shepperton studios and was then returned to Bermans, the costumiers, at that time Angels’ main rival. The cloak was later lent to other films including The Mummy in 1999.

It formed part of Bermans’ stock when the company was taken over by Angels in 1992 and was identified during an inventory of 1.5m items of clothing on six miles of rails at Angels’ cavernous headquarters in Hendon, north London, two years ago.

Other costumes in the sale include the suits worn by Pierce Brosnan in three James Bond films. The most valuable is a grey three-piece suit that he wore in GoldenEye, his debut as 007. It will have a reserve price of £10,000. Also for sale are items worn by Ava Gardner, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Burton, Sir John Gielgud, Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone