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The cloak worn by Christopher Lee in his first role as Dracula has been discovered in a fancy dress shop.
Its owners unwittingly hired it out to the public - on one occasion it was even rented for a children's nativity play.
The black cape was part of Lee's costume for the 1958 Hammer Horror film Dracula, which co-starred Peter Cushing as Dr Van Helsing.
It was made by the London firm Angels, which runs a fancy dress shop on Shaftesbury Ave and also supplies costumes for the film industry. When the film was completed, it was not expected to be a hit and the costumes went back into the Angels stockroom before finding their way into the shop.
The cloak, valued at £25,000 ($68,000), was used in other films and rented to members of the public. Its history was discovered only this year during an annual inventory check.
