Darth Vader's lightsaber, used in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, sold for nearly $5m at a Heritage Auctions event in the US. The prop, featured in the famous “I am your father” scene, fetched $4.875m at the auction titled “the Ultimate Star Wars auction”.
World Record for Star Wars Prop
Heritage Auctions said the sale marked a world auction record for any Star Wars prop used on screen. It surpassed the auctioneer's previous sale of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and severed hand from The Empire Strikes Back, which sold for $3.75m in July.
The Darth Vader saber was one of 27 lightsaber props up for sale, including ones used by Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith.
Auction Highlights
Other items in the sale spanned the Star Wars universe, including a blaster used by Boba Fett and a Yoda puppet hand used during the character's original appearance in The Empire Strikes Back.
Brian Chanes, senior director of Hollywood and entertainment at Heritage Auctions, described the Darth Vader saber as “like the holy grail” to a Star Wars collector. “It's the one on the set,” he said. “It's from the most iconic sequence of the entire franchise.”
