A lightsaber used by Darth Vader in the films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi has been auctioned for more than $3.6 million at a Los Angeles film and entertainment auction.
The weapon, in reality a handle largely crafted from a camera flash, is now the most valuable Star Wars prop ever sold at auction.
The saber was sold by Propstore at their Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction, giving the three-day sale a strong start on September 4, 2025.
The weapon was carried by Bristol born actor, strongman and body builder David Prowse, who was inside the black Vader suit for almost all of the first sequence of three Star Wars movies.
Prowse, who suffered from arthritis, struggled to perform fight scenes though, and some of the most famous sequences in the whole franchise show Bob Anderson, a fencer and fight choreographer wielding the famous sword.
Darth Vader, voiced by actor James Earl Jones, is an iconic figure for the Star Wars sequence and modern culture.
In 2023, a model of a Rebel X-Wing fighter ship was sold for $3.1 million.
Until this week, that was the most expensive Star Wars item.
The most valuable toy related to the sequence is a Boba Fett model that never made it past prototype stage because of safety concerns. An example was sold for $1.4 million in 2024.
Star Wars is now hugely valuable as a media property and with collectors.
But, when the first films were being shot there was little expectation that they would become one of the defining media franchises of a new age of Hollywood.
According to Propstore’s Stephen Lane - speaking to Mark Newbold of Fanthatracks (a Star Wars media site) as the lightsaber completed an international exhibition tour - many props that would now command huge prices were simply broken up, chucked away, or vanished into private, personal collections.
This bladeless weapon had been lost for 40 years, he said, and was submitted by a seller who wasn’t aware of its significance.
It is only the second “hero” saber (used by one of the series’s main characters) to come to light. The other is privately owned.
There may well be other items like it out there.
Propstore described the prop as a “grail level” buy, and one fan was ready to break the bank for it.
Movie props can be super valuable.
Earlier this year film director Joe Dante was able to sell a Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane for $15 million at auction. He had been given the prop during a studio clearout - it otherwise would have ended up in a dumpster.
The Ruby Slippers from the Wizard, sold for $32.5 million in 2024. They are the most valuable item of movie memorabilia ever publicly sold. And their long, winding road of a story includes a theft and an FBI sting.
Star Wars will be 50 years old in 1977. That, and the proposed 2026 opening of a George Lucas museum in California, is likely to keep demand for items from the franchise high and rising.
