A prop lightsaber wielded by Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy has just sold at auction for almost $5 million.
This is the most amount of money a Star Wars prop has ever sold for, and it’s easy to see why. The lightsaber was featured in The Empire Strikes Back — largely seen as the best of the bunch — and Return of the Jedi, making it at least 46 years old.
As reported by The Guardian, the sale was done through Heritage Auctions, and sold for $4.875 million. The eye-watering figure beat the previous overall record of $3,875,000, which Heritage achieved with Tom Jung’s original half-sheet key poster painting for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. It also eclipsed the previous record for a screen-used Star Wars prop: Heritage’s $3,750,000 sale of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and severed hand effects rig on July 15, 2026.
Darth Vader’s original lightsaber. Image credit: Heritage Auctions.
“Vader’s lightsaber is an artifact from the very heart of the saga, and its result led a historic auction,” Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s Executive Vice President,
