Darth Vader’s ‘I Am Your Father’ Lightsaber Sells for $4.875M
A lightsaber used by Darth Vader in the "I am your father" scene sold for $4.875 million at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, setting a record for an on-screen Star Wars prop and topping Luke Skywalker's saber from July.
The lightsaber Darth Vader wielded in the "I am your father" scene sold for $4.875 million on Thursday at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, setting an auction record for a screen-used Star Wars prop, the auction house said.
Auctioneers had estimated it would sell for over $1 million. It was one of 27 lightsabers in Heritage's "Ultimate Star Wars" sale, which featured almost 200 props and artworks from the franchise and spin-offs such as "The Mandalorian."
Beating Luke's saber
The price topped the previous record for a Star Wars prop. Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from the same Cloud City duel, sold with a special effect rig of an amputated hand, fetched $3.75 million at Heritage in July.
Heritage describes the hilt as the character's "primary dueling lightsaber." Actor David Prowse and his stunt double, Olympic fencer Bob Anderson, both used it in fight scenes.
It appeared in the Cloud City duel in 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back," where Vader severs Luke's hand and makes his shock revelation. It returned in 1983's "Return of the Jedi" for the throne room confrontation.
The catalog said the auction house could not confirm whether it was also used in the original 1977 film, though it called that "possible."
Built from a camera part
The hilt began as a 1950s British camera flash attachment, according to Heritage. Prop makers added black plastic grips and tiny magnifying lenses from a calculator display, and reinforced it to hold interchangeable wooden blades.
The blades on the auctioned prop were not part of the sale. The red glow seen on screen was animated frame by frame in post-production.
Heritage matched a distinctive bend in the hilt's belt ring to a production photo from "The Empire Strikes Back." A dent at its base matched a close-up in "Return of the Jedi."
The saber shows damage "consistent with usage as a working dueling prop," the catalog said, including scratches, a crack, a missing portion of the upper shroud and a partially broken grip.
Brian Chanes, senior director of Hollywood and entertainment at Heritage Auctions, called it "like the Holy Grail" to a Star Wars collector. "It's the one on the set," he said. "It's from the most iconic sequence of the entire franchise."
Other lots
A rifle used by Boba Fett sold for $375,000. A miniature Snowspeeder model once owned by Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, fetched $200,000.
Among the other lightsabers, those used by Ray Park's Darth Maul and Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker each sold for $162,500, the next highest prices after Vader's.
Earlier multimillion-dollar Star Wars props include a miniature Red Leader X-wing Starfighter, sold for over $3.13 million in 2023, and a complete R2-D2 unit that fetched $2.75 million in 2017.
