A lightsaber used by Darth Vader in the Star Wars films sold for 4,875,000 dollars, breaking the previous record for a Star Wars memorabilia, nos.nl reported.
The buyer placed the winning bid over a telephone connection during the auction in Dallas, according to nos.nl. Heritage Auctions handled the sale as part of a lot featuring nearly two hundred items from Star Wars films and television series.
The prop is best known from the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, where the villain carries it during the confrontation in Cloud City. In that scene, Vader duels Luke Skywalker and cuts off his hand before delivering the line, “I am your father,” as reported by nos.nl.
The prop reappeared in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. Heritage Auctions stated it might also have appeared in the first film, A New Hope, though experts cannot confirm that with certainty, nos.nl reported. The exact same weapon sold at auction last year for roughly a million dollars less.
The previous record for a Star Wars prop belonged to a different lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back used by Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill. That item featured an artificial hand and a release mechanism, fetching 3.75 million dollars in July, nos.nl reported.
Production crews for the original trilogy built the props using old camera flash units. Prop makers modified these external flash parts to give them a futuristic appearance, according to nos.nl.
Actors David Prowse and stuntman Bob Anderson attached wooden or aluminum rods to the hilts during filming to engage in combat scenes. Special effects teams later replaced those rods with colored beams in post-production, nos.nl noted. The recent auction included only the hilt with a small protruding section where the rod once attached.
The auction took place with twenty-seven other lightsabers as collectors look toward the fiftieth anniversary of the first Star Wars film in 2027, Stripspeciaalzaak reported. Other lots included a hilt used by Samuel L. Jackson in Attack of the Clones and a weapon carried by Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi, bringing the total auction yield to over seven million dollars, nos.nl reported.
Kinepolis announced plans to screen the original Star Wars film in cinemas starting in February 2027.
The identity of the buyer remains undisclosed, as the winning bid was placed via a telephone connection at the Dallas auction, nos.nl reported.
The event featured nearly two hundred Star Wars items, including a lightsaber hilt used by Samuel L. Jackson in Attack of the Clones and a weapon carried by Adam Driver in The Last Jedi, bringing total sales past seven million dollars, nos.nl reported.
Kinepolis scheduled theatrical screenings of the original film to begin in February 2027 in the lead-up to the franchise’s fiftieth anniversary, Stripspeciaalzaak reported.
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