NEW DELHI: A still from Gangavataram (1937), the first talkie by and the last film of father of Indian cinema Dadasaheb Phalke was sold at an auction here recently for Rs 102,000.

The still was part of the Vintage Indian Film Memorabilia section featuring Hindi Cinema‘s forgotten and Silent Era (Black & White) memorabilia put on auction by Osian‘s Connoisseurs of Art.

This proved to be a major landmark for the evolving film memorabilia market and also showed the interest amongst people for film mementos.

There has been a growing participation of international museums and curators from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore in the bidding for vintage Indian cinematic heritage.

The other highlights in this section were the Dilip Kumar set of photographs at Rs 162,000 and Amitabh Bachchan with Rs 126,000.

The sale of vintage Indian film memorabilia was part of the art auction which fetched Rs 7,44,81,600 (90 per cent of value of the total lower estimate and 60.5 per cent of total quantity).

The recapturing of its leadership position by the Osian‘s Auction House, the impending launch of its arts, culture and cinema search engine - theosianama.com - and the forthcoming publication of 100 volumes on ‘Celebrating 100 Years of Indian Cinema‘ in collaboration with Mapin Publishing, will mark the re-emergence of Osian‘s as the pace setter in the Indian art and memorabilia market.

On the successful completion of the 1st Osianama Series Auction, Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian‘s Group said "It is a slow and steady rebuilding process for the arts and cultural artifacts market. Without a strong Osian‘s it is very difficult for the market to achieve stability and confidence given that every area of arts and cultural infrastructure building is now linked to Osian‘s activities, from auctions to publishing & design, online search to museums, film festivals to conservation and archiving."