PROPSTORE TO AUCTION BATMAN AND INDIANA JONES FILM PROPS IN LONDON

Propstore is auctioning more than 1,400 pieces of film and television memorabilia in London, with a combined pre-sale estimate of £10 million. The three-day Winter Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction runs from 4 to 6 December. Headline lots include the Batpod motorcycle from the Batman films, Christian Bale's Batsuit from Batman Begins, and props from Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom. Propstore founder and chief executive Stephen Lane called the Batpod "an extraordinary feat of filmmaking and engineering" and "a spectacular centrepiece" of the auction.

The Batpod, which appeared in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, carries a guide price of £450,000 to £900,000. Bale's Batsuit from Batman Begins is estimated at £125,000 to £250,000. A fedora and shirt worn by Harrison Ford's stunt double, Vic Armstrong, in Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom are estimated at £400,000 to £800,000, while an eight-foot bullwhip from the same film carries an estimate of £200,000 to £400,000. Armstrong, who jumped from a galloping horse on to a moving tank in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, is selling the items from his own collection.

Lane founded Propstore in 1998 and the firm now has offices in Hertfordshire, London and Los Angeles. He said nobody paid attention to the significance of such objects when he began collecting, and that props studios once discarded or painted over are "now often thought of as more valuable than pieces of art." Lane said he still gets "a huge buzz" whenever the company finds a piece of film history. He called combining the Indiana Jones fedora, shirt and bullwhip in one catalogue "particularly exciting."