A lightsaber Darth Vader used in one of cinema’s most recognizable scenes has sold for $4.875 million, setting an auction record for any Star Wars collectible prop. Auctioneers had estimated the prop would fetch more than $1 million. The final price surpassed Heritage Auctions’ previous record of $3.75 million for Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and severed hand-effects rig, which sold in July. The red lightsaber appeared in the climactic Cloud City duel in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, when Vader told Skywalker, “I am your father.” Filmmakers also used the prop in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. Brian Chanes, Heritage’s senior director of Hollywood and entertainment, described the lightsaber as “like the Holy Grail” for a Star Wars collector. “It’s the one on the set,” he said. “It’s from the most iconic sequence of the entire franchise.” Heritage’s Ultimate Star Wars Auction also featured a blaster Boba Fett used and a Yoda puppet hand from the character’s original appearance in The Empire Strikes Back.
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