Raiders of the Lost Shirt! Indiana Jones’ iconic original jacket sells for £300,000 after it was discovered in a charity shop and sold on eBay (before Disney used it to create a perfect replica in Harrison Ford’s latest Indy adventure)

The unique original ‘lost’ Indiana Jones shirt, which has traded hands for next to nothing via a charity shop and eBay, is set to fetch a whopping £300,000 – after it was recently discovered and borrowed to return after 42 years in the latest Harrison Ford of this year’s film.

Thanks to advances in technology, after doubts about its authenticity, auctioneers subjected the shirt to forensic analysis before proving it was the original from Raiders of the Lost Ark that costume designers had tried to copy for the intervening Indiana Jones films.

And after the film franchise was sold without any physical items included, the makers of this year’s Dial of Destiny film had nothing to work on for Indiana’s costume and begged auctioneers Propstore to help them.

A call went out to collectors and the original 1981 safari-style cotton shirt resurfaced – with the owner allowing the new Disney costume team to borrow it to create an exact replica for this year’s film.

Now the British owner is selling it on Thursday for at least £150,000 – with an opening bid of £75,000 already on offer and an estimated selling price of £300,000.

The British owner is selling it on Thursday for at least £150,000 – with an opening bid of £75,000 already in the bag

The shirt was originally worn by Harrison Ford (pictured, right) in the very first Indiana Jones film

Filmmakers have been trying to recreate the shirt for years, with varying degrees of success

Stephen Lane of Propstore said: ‘It’s hard to believe that after the film it was then discovered in a charity shop by someone who knew it was from the film and then put it on eBay. Since then, it has changed hands a few times over the last 10 to 15 years.”

Lane recounted how Indiana Jones film experts initially thought the khaki-colored shirt might not be real, even though the label included Ford’s name and the collar and sleeve size.

He said: ‘The costumes for Indiana Jones were Bermans & Nathans in Britain, because Raiders was mainly shot in the UK at Elstree and other locations, but the label said Western Company from LA, so initially collectors turned it down.

“But after further research and conversations with the original costume designers, we learned that many of the fittings for Harrison Ford were conveniently done in LA when production was still in the very early stages, so Western ended up producing some of the clothing that Harrison wore.

‘We took a much more thorough and in-depth look to determine authenticity and, thanks to advances in technology, we have managed to match it with scenes from the film.

‘We’ve been doing that for over twenty years, but first we had a blurry VHS screen, then DVD and then HD, but now with 4K we can look at finer intricacies, whether it’s something like the stitching and weaving of a material like this shirt, or the brand of the buttons.

‘We discovered that the pockets don’t line up – one is higher than the other – like the original. In addition, you have these pleated bands that run along the front and are stitched by hand, so that they pinch off the material.

‘We could match the shirt with the very important opening scene where Harrison Ford escapes a giant rolling boulder after finding the gold fertility idol, and then also with scenes in Cairo.

‘During this time, many costumes and props were simply hired by the production company, and if they couldn’t be re-rented they were thrown away. The shirt was probably donated to charity to free up space.

“There was no perception of value as few, if any, people collected these artifacts.”

Explaining why the owner has now decided to sell, Lane added: ‘The seller felt that with the release of the new film it was a good time to sell, especially with Harrison Ford hanging up his hat.

‘But after we found it, we were contacted by the costume designer about the new film, because when Lucasfilm sold the intellectual property to Disney, George Lucas wouldn’t allow them to buy any physical assets – so Disney had nothing to point to.

‘We found the shirt in Britain, the jacket and hat we got from another collector, and the trousers and boots from other people. So they were used as a template.”