A single frame from the controversial 1947 ‘alien autopsy’ film is being sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) at auction, with the opening bid well over $1million or 450 ethereum.
The 16-mm film reputedly shows the aftermath of the supposed UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico, with a humanoid figure on an operating table.
The 17-minute long film shows the figure with a massive wound on its right leg, large eyes and skull and several different individuals walking around the figure wearing white suits.
The winner of the auction will receive the footage as an NFT, essentially showing its authenticity via lines of code.
The auction is being conducted by Rarible, which bills itself as the ‘largest decentralized, creator-centric NFT marketplace for a variety of multimedia content.’
The NFT made from the original, controversial, 1947 Alien Autopsy film. It has a starting bid of 450 ethereum, or more than $1 million
The flying saucer reportedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947
The winner will also receive a physical 16mm frame from the original film that was shot in 1947, according to a statement.
The footage has supposedly been ‘authenticated’ by the CIA, according to the film’s owner, British entrepreneur Ray Santilli.
Santilli acquired it in 1992 from a retired U.S. military cameraman, according to the statement.
‘I have lived with this film and the story surrounding it for 30 years,’ Santilli said in the release. ‘When I first saw the CIA papers with their verification of the Roswell event and Alien Autopsy film, a massive weight was lifted from my shoulders. I believe the technology we enjoy today started in 1947 with the Roswell crash and that the NFT and single film frame being offered is by far one of the most valuable items to even come up in auction.’
Controversy surrounding the film and its authenticity has existed for years.
In 1995, footage from the film was broadcast on Fox as an hour-long documentary entitled, Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction, hosted by Jonathan Frakes.
In 2006, Santilli eventually admitted that the footage was a ‘reconstruction’ of what he said he previously viewed and that only a ‘few frames’ were from the 1947 film, but never specified which ones.
Separately that year, special-effects designer named John Humphreys claimed that he had created the figure in the footage and appeared in the film as one of the pathologists, according to Live Science.
However, a leaked 2001 memo was reportedly obtained by aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow (obtained from the archives of former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell) which discusses a CIA scientist Kit Green saying the film and the cadaver are real.
‘The Alien Autopsy film/video is real, the alien cadaver is real, and the cadaver seen in the film/video is the same as the photos Kit saw at the 1987/88 Pentagon briefing,’ Green said in a 2001 briefing at the Pentagon, according to release.
Bigelow has connections to former US Senator Harry Reid.
While in office, Reid obtained funding for the now-defunct Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, some of which went to Bigelow Aerospace, to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena.
On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Daily Record, citing a statement from Jesse Marcel Sr., reported that the Roswell Army field recovered a flying saucer on a New Mexico Ranch after metallic-looking, light but strong material was scattered across the land.
The local paper’s front page story reported that the Roswell Army field recovered a flying saucer on a New Mexico Ranch after metallic-looking, light but strong material was scattered across the land. ‘The intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment Group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into the possession of a Flying Saucer,’ Roswell Daily Record reported on July 8, 1947
The Air Force report regarding the event states the debris were pieces from Project Mogal’s balloons, sensors and radar reflectors made of thin metal. Pictured is Marcel with the debris
‘The intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment Group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into the possession of a Flying Saucer,’ the paper reported.
Marcel Sr. was the first on the scene and led the investigation, which he determined were pieces from an extraterrestrial vehicle.
However, shortly after the ‘UFO’ discovery made headlines, the War Department in Washington DC released a statement claiming the debris was just remains of a weather balloon.
