Collectors didn't "wind down" towards the end of 2025, they wound it up!
Sales kept setting records. Too many for us to recount in full here.
Let's look at our favourites from the last third of 2025 in collecting.
September
The Force? Not on his side. The cash? Very much so.
A lightsaber wielded by ultra-villain Darth Vader in Star Wars sold for $3.6 million to set a record for props from the movie series.
PropStore sold the weapon in Los Angeles, listing it with a $1 million to $3 million estimate.
The previous record for Star Wars - perhaps the most collectible film franchise in history - was $3.1 million for an X-Wing spaceship prop in 2023.
The Vader sword was used in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and was made in the UK, largely from a camera flash.
Lots of extra wizardry went into making this plastic and metal object a compelling space weapon, but the bare bones were worth a record price in September. Image courtesy of PropStore.
$13.5 million is record for legendary Conan artist
A new record was set in September for a painter who helped shape the imaginary world of Conan the Barbarian and a whole genre of illustration.
Frank Frazetta’s work is immediately recognisable - spanning paperback books to record covers and movie posters - and his illustration of Conan the Barbarian fighting a man-ape called Thak sold for $13.5 million at Heritage Auctions.
The picture was used on a 1967 collection of Conan short stories.
The price is a record both for Frazetta and any work in the fantasy genre.
With more sales in the pipeline it might not stand for long though.
$1 million sale gives Tony Hawk another skateboard crown
A Tony Hawk skateboard, on which he completed the first known 900-degree aerial spin, sold for $1.1 million in Los Angeles to become the most valuable skateboard ever sold at auction. .
Julien’s sold the board, along with much of the kit Hawk wore for the jump, in 1999.
October
Eddie did a good deal of work on his own guitar that was used to sell Kramer instruments. Image courtesy of Sotheby's.
Van Halen guitar is 6th most valuable ever
An Eddie Van Halen Kramer guitar sold for $2.7 in October to become the sixth most expensive guitar ever sold.
It was co-made by Eddie and the Kramer guitar firm, who used it in their publicity, leading to the name “the Ad guitar”.
Sotheby’s sold it as a single lot at a New York sale.
Einstein’s fiddle flies over £1 million
Einstein’s favourite, first violin sold for over £1 million in October.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers sold the fiddle, which Einstein bought some time after 1894 and scratched the name “Lina” into the body.
Decades later, the scientist had achieved global fame and - as a Jewish man with socialist sympathies - was very much in the sights of his home country’s new Nazi rulers.
In 1933 he left Europe forever and gave everything he left behind to a scientist friend, who gave the violin to a fan.
It is now the most valuable Einstein violin ever sold. The genius physicist loved music and played throughout his life.
November
Bowie and Duffy take album art record with Aladdin Sane
The original print of the photograph on the cover of the 1973 David Bowie album Aladdin Sane sold for £381,400 including premiums on November 5.
Photographer Brian Duffy - usually called just Duffy - took the picture, now called the Mona Lisa of Pop, and helped the chameleonic pop star forge another identity.
Bonhams handled the sale, which they said surpassed the previous record set by an image from the cover of Led Zeppelin’s debut album.
Titanic price for Titanic watch
The Titanic sank on April 16, 1912. In 2025 the tragic liner still has a dedicated following.
In Wiltshire in November a new record for the ship fell when a celebrated watch was sold.
The Isidor Straus watch made £1.8 million to become the most valuable item associated with the Titanic to sell at auction.
Henry Aldridge & Son sold the watch, which was found on Mr Straus’ body after he and his wife, Ida, famously refused to separate to seek safety.
Isidor Straus made a good deal of money at Macy's department store in New York, but is now best remembered for his dedication to his wife as they faced death together.
Klimt sets modern art record at $236.4 million
New York had a busy round of autumn sales, making many headlines, of which the biggest and boldest was for the Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (a portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) that sold for $236.4 million.
Klimt’s work is already very valuable, but this sale makes him the most valuable Modern artist - a period usually taken to run from 1880 to 1970.
Klimt created his portraits in Vienna, often for very rich clients, and many were stolen by the Nazis. This one was finished in 1916, taken by the Nazis after Anschluss, then broke the $195 million record set by Andy Warhol’s Sage Shot Blue Marilyn in 2022 this year.
It was sold from the collection of Leonard Lauder, an heir of the Estee Lauder cosmetics company.
Man of Steel takes comic record
A copy of the first dedicated Superman comic auctioned for $9.1 million in November to become the most valuable comic ever sold.
The Superman #1 had been found in an attic in California.
The book was published in 1939 and made Superman the first character to enjoy his own title and the first superhero to appear in more than one comic.
The rarity of this example was down to the presence of its original cut-out poster inside the book that many kids couldn’t resist.
December
Egg breaks record
The Winter Egg keeps breaking Faberge records. Image courtesy of Christie's.
Faberge eggs are emblems of imperial opulence, and the best-known sold for a record £22.9 million in London in December.
The egg was made in 1913 for Tsar Nicholas II, who gave it to his mother, Tsarina Maria Feodorovna.
The Soviets later sold it, and its two previous auction sales set Faberge records. When Nicholas bought it its hundreds of diamonds helped to make it the most valuable Easter egg in history af the time.
Star Wars wins again
The Star Wars record set in September didn’t last long.
Darth Vader’s lightsaber went for $3.6 million in December.
And, a few months later, the painting that helped forge the image of the series in the public imagination sold for $3.8 million.
Heritage Auctions sold Tom Jung’s painting from the collection of Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz.
The picture also became the most valuable movie art ever sold.
Star Wars was futuristic and cutting edge, but the imagery by Tom Jung echoed Golden Age of Hollywood adventure classics. The mix was a superb success. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Read Part 1 here
Read Part 2 here
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