The auction price of the on-screen prop used in the famous ‘I am your father’ scene blew away expectations.
Auctioneers were astonished when the prop, used in 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back as well as 1983’s Return of the Jedi, sold for $4,875M at auction — nearly five times their $1M estimate. The Darth Vader saber was one of 27 other lightsaber props up for sale by Heritage Auctions in the US, including ones used by Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith.
This is the most any Star Wars prop has ever sold for, according to a spokesperson for Heritage Auctions, surpassing Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and severed hand from The Empire Strikes Back, which sold for $3.75m in July.
Items up for sale spanned the far reaches of the universe created by George Lucas, including an blaster used by Boba Fett and a Yoda puppet hand used during the character’s original appearance in The Empire Strikes Back.
Brian Chanes, the senior director of Hollywood and entertainment at Heritage Auctions, said the Darth Vader saber was “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.”
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