Warsaw -- Several rare early 20th century Swedish, German, Italian and American movies have been discovered in a cellar in southern Poland, the country's national film library said Friday.

"They are going to undergo cleaning and conservation, before being watched, identified and archived," library spokeswoman Justyna Jablonska told AFP.

The Polska newspaper reported that experts have identified several cinematic gems in the metal boxes discovered in a parish building in the city of Sosnowiec.

The newspaper said they included the 1913 "Gränsfolken" (People of the Border), adapted by Swedish director Mauritz Stiller from a novel by French icon Emile Zola, as well as "Zwei Himmelblaue Augen" (Two Skyblue Eyes), released in 1932 by Germany's Johannes Meyer.

In addition, Polska said, the films include a 1929 German version of the Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Richard Oswald, one from the long-running Italian series "Maciste," which began in 1914 and starred Bartolomeo Pagano.

Experts reportedly also discovered parts of a 1913 movie by Germany's Otton Rippert, who often worked with Fritz Lang.

The collection belonged to the parish priest Father Jerzy Barszcz, a local film buff who began collecting movies after World War II, and who died in 2004, Polska reported.

AFP/Expatica