Last month we covered an ongoing auction of Star Wars memorabilia in which the most eye-catching item was the lightsaber prop used by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back’s iconic “I am your father!” fight, and also throughout Return of the Jedi. The other prop involved in the fateful fight in Cloud City’s central air shaft—the lightsaber used by Luke Skywalker, which came complete with its owner’s severed hand—sold [earlier this year] for a record $3.75m, making it the most expensive Star Wars prop ever sold, and there was speculation that its record might be broken when bidding started on Vader’s weapon.
And so it came to be. Bidding on the items up for auction closed yesterday, and the lightsaber record wasn’t just broken; it was disemboweled and dumped into a pit for the Sarlacc to digest over the course of a thousand years. Proving that the dark side has more allure than the light—at least for the sort of people who have seven figures to drop on a pretend laser sword—the Vader saber went for a whopping $4,875,000. Yep, that’s nearly five million real American dollars.
That price means the lightsaber isn’t just the most expensive Star Wars prop ever sold; it also makes it the most expensive piece of Star Wars memorabilia ever sold at auction, period. (The previous record holder—the original poster painting for A New Hope, which sold for $3.875 million—only took possession of the title last December, which suggests that either a lot of particularly desirable Star Wars stuff is coming up for sale lately, or there are more rich nerds out there than ever before. Or both.)
There’s not really a great deal more to say about this beyond the fact that it’s kinda wild that there are people out there who can and will pay absurd amounts of money for these pieces of filmic paraphernalia. The identities of such buyers are usually kept secret, and this case is no exception. But as we said last month, if you happen to go home with some fabulously wealthy tech bro—hey, we’re not judging—and discover a battered lightsaber occupying a newly installed display case on their mantelpiece, make sure they pay for your car home.
