Alfred Hitchcock's silent films join UNESCO register

Alfred Hitchcock's nine silent films are now added to the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register.

The register "reflects the richness of UK culture and history, from medieval manuscripts to ground-breaking cinema," the BBC reported.

The online catalogue, which highlights documentary heritage holding cultural significance specific to the UK, was created in July 2010.

The current collection, which includes The Bodleian Library's Cura Pastoralis of Gregory, will be joined by eleven items, selected from UK libraries, archives and museums have been selected this year to join.

The British Film Institute (BFI) spent three years restoring nine silent Hitchcock films, made between 1925 and 1929, ahead of their premiere at the London 2012 Festival last year.

The films include debut feature 'The Pleasure Garden' and boxing drama 'The Ring'.

However, a tenth film made during the period, 'The Mountain Eagle' (1926), remains lost.

The Hitchcock 9, cited as a blueprint for the director's best known post-war films such as Psycho and Vertigo, are currently being screened across the US.

Vertigo replaced Orson Welles's Citizen Kane at the top of the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine poll as the greatest film of all time, last year.