Finding buried treasure has transferred from pirate islands to attics, walls, and under the floors of houses. Recently an impressive group of rare movie posters was found under the linoleum floor of a southern Pennsylvania house. The group will be offered in Heritage’s Vintage Movie Posters Signature Auction this weekend on November 21-22, 2015, and are expected to sell for over $140,000.

The lost pieces include five never before seen posters for Clark Gable’s first starring role and the Tarzan The Ape Man style D one-sheet, which they estimate will sell for over $40,000.

The posters were found last summer by Bob and Dylan Basta when they were renovating a room in the home their father had recently bought. While removing dated linoleum, Bob and Dylan found layers of newspaper from the 1940s and 14 movie posters. Some were from obscure films they had never heard of along with Tarzan, who they did recognize. The pair called their father, Robert, to tell them about the discovery.

“When you work on homes like this all your life you always dream of that day when you actually find something rare and it seldom comes,” said Robert Basta. “I‘m excited for my boys, now they have a story and a memory that will last their lifetimes.”

When Bob and Dylan started researching the posters online, they learned just how exciting the discovery was. “It took a day or so to sink in until we realized these weren’t going to a local auction,” Basta said. “That’s when we found Heritage.”

The discovery, “is a one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen-piece of Hollywood history,” Grey Smith, Director of Posters for Heritage, said. He also shared that he was amazed to see the posters in person, especially the Tarzan The Ape Man style D one-sheet.

In 2012 Heritage offered the Berwick Discovery of Lost Movie Posters, which was the last time their customers were so eager to bid on a discovery like this, Smith also shared. That auction featured a collection of 1930s movie posters that ended up selling for more than $500,000.

The Movie Poster Under the Floor Find also includes Red Headed Woman style C one-sheet featuring a dramatic looking Jean Harlow; Congorilla, an early 1932 documentary filmed in Africa; Sporting Blood, featuring Clark Gable’s first starring role; Tess of the Storm Country, an Academy Award nominated film; and Any Old Port, an MGM short starring the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.

“Like Berwick, the Movie Posters Under the Floor Find all date from the late 1920s to the early 1930s and restores several missing chapters of Hollywood history,” Smith said. “Little did they know they were standing on a small fortune.”

Robert Basta said the discovery will help him afford retirement and make life just a little bit easier. “I know this is a blessing for me,” he said. “I don’t know where it will take our family, but I know this is a blessing.”

The auction also includes a Frankenstein window card for the 1931 Universal Monster classic, Mickey’s Mellerdrammer one-sheet with a classic Disney image, Thunderball style A advance British quad with four depictions of James Bond by artists Robert McGinnis and Frank McCarthy, and Things to Come one-sheet for the 1936 H.G. Wells sci-fi film.

On November 21 the Signature Floor session 1 is at 1 PM CT and session 2 is at 6 PM CT. Then on November 22 the Signature Internet session 3 will take place at 12 PM CT.

Heritage Auctions is located at 3500 Maple Avenue, Dallas, TX.