{"id":201469,"date":"2025-09-05T05:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T05:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201469\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T05:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T05:20:10","slug":"darth-vaders-lightsaber-sells-for-star-wars-record-3-6m-at-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201469\/","title":{"rendered":"Darth Vader’s Lightsaber Sells for Star Wars Record $3.6M at Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA lucky Star Wars<\/a> fan is embracing the dark side, as Darth Vader\u2019s lightsaber from the franchise\u2019s initial trilogy has sold at auction<\/a> for an astronomical sum. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe iconic character\u2019s screen-matched primary dueling lightsaber<\/a> that was used in the films\u00a0The Empire Strikes Back<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Return of the Jedi<\/a>\u00a0sold for $3,654,000 when it hit the block from Propstore in Los Angeles on Thursday, becoming the highest-valued piece from the Star Wars franchise ever up for auction. The winning bid came in at a franchise record of $2,900,000 and reached the final total with the additional buyer\u2019s premium that is paid to the auction house.<\/p>\n

\n\tStar Wars\u00a0actor David Prowse and stunt double Bob Anderson both held the item onscreen. It carried a presale value estimate ranging from $1 million to $3 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is said to be the only hero lightsaber from the original\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0trilogy to ever hit an auction. The Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction coincides with this year marking the 45th anniversary of the release of\u00a0The Empire Strikes Back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDarth Vader\u2019s lightsaber was sold at auction from Propstore.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Propstore<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Star Wars buying force was strong with the auction, as Anakin Skywalker\u2019s stunt dueling lightsaber for Hayden Christensen\u2019s character from the prequels went for $126,000, with the buyer\u2019s premium. This was nearly twice the presale estimate.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the other items sold during the auction included Indiana Jones\u2019 bullwhip and belt that Harrison Ford used in Steven Spielberg\u2019s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with the pair selling for $475,650. Also, Jean-Luc Picard\u2019s Ressikan flute, which belonged to Patrick Stewart\u2019s Star Trek: The Next Generation character, went for $403,200.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditionally, Rick Dalton\u2019s flamethrower tank and backpack, as Leonardo DiCaprio wore in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, sold for $346,500. <\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this summer, The Hollywood Reporter reported exclusively<\/a> that Darth Vader\u2019s lightsaber would be hitting the auction block.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSurviving genuine lightsaber props from the original trilogy of films are exceedingly rare, and Propstore is honored to present this historic artifact in our September sale,\u201d Propstore COO Brandon Alinger said in a previous statement. \u201cIt is a grail-level piece, worthy of the finest collections in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn-person bidding took place at L.A.\u2019s Petersen Automotive Museum on Thursday. Items will continue to be sold via online, telephone and absentee bidding as the auction continues through Saturday. <\/p>\n

\n\tBack in 2022, Propstore sold a screen-matched model miniature X-wing fighter that is 22 inches long and was created for director George Lucas<\/a>\u2018 original Star Wars film. The item went for more than $2.3 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lucky Star Wars fan is embracing the dark side, as Darth Vader\u2019s lightsaber from the franchise\u2019s initial…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":201470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[38545,171,60809,111394,14398,111395,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-201469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-auction","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-george-lucas","11":"tag-return-of-the-jedi","12":"tag-star-wars","13":"tag-the-empire-strikes-back","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115150010763772721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}