Sotheby's to auction oldest known film poster from 1895 Lumière screening

Sotheby's London will auction on August 28 a lithograph by French artist Henri Brispot (1846–1928) advertising the first public paid film screening by the Lumière brothers in Paris, December 1895. The poster, estimated at €40,000, depicts a crowd attending the historic event, though in reality fewer than 30 people attended the screening at the Salon Indien of the Grand Café on Boulevard des Capucines. No newspaper covered the 20-minute projection at the time. The sale includes 164 other original film posters, from Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey to Popeye, The Pink Panther, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Tom & Jerry, with prices ranging from £900 to several thousand pounds. The Lumière brothers—Auguste and Louis—are credited with inventing the cinématographe, while their father Antoine conceived the paid public screening that launched cinema as entertainment.