Prints of daily life across five decades but also of war, sport and stars from the glitzy worlds of music, cinema, fashion and art will go on sale on Oct 3, at a Parisian events space and online.

Historical snaps up for grabs include Martin Luther King on the day of his “I have a dream” speech in Washington in 1963, Che Guevara’s body – killed by the Bolivian army in 1967 – and Nelson Mandela after his release from jail in 1990.

AFP’s director of photography said the collection offers a rare glimpse into the agency’s trove of pictures dating back decades.

“Some of the photos on sale are real photographic ‘surprises’, while others are symbolic moments that made international news in the last century. Several have become cult classics,” said Marielle Eudes.

“They bear witness not only to the richness of the agency’s documents from a historical perspective, but also to an exceptional photographic quality that is little known to the general public,” she added.

The photos date from the agency’s beginnings in 1944, up to 1998 – when AFP started rolling out digital photography.

The auction on Oct 3, titled “The Analogue Years”, will be held online and at the we are_ event space in Paris under the direction of Digard Auction.

A selection of the photos on sale will be displayed around Paris in the lead-up to the auction.

AFP is one the world’s leading photography agencies, publishing images from datelines across the globe, from the US and Russia to Eritrea and North Korea.

The agency’s analogue collection includes around six million images.

The earnings from the sale will be included in the company’s turnover.