Darth Vader's Lightsaber Just Fetched a Huge Amount at Auction

The archetypal lightsaber wielded by Darth Vader has fetched a existent bounty astatine auction this week, aft being utilized by 1 of cinema's astir iconic villains successful aggregate Star Wars films.

Bidding connected the sci-fi leaf began astatine $500,000, ABC News reported, and portion the point had been fixed an estimated merchantability worth of betwixt $1-3 million, it yet sold for adjacent higher — conscionable implicit $3.6 million.

For the archetypal Star Wars movies, 2 versions of each lightsaber were produced — a mentation that lone featured the hilt, to look successful scenes extracurricular of combat, and different mentation successful which a stunt leaf could beryllium attached. This lightsaber is Vader's mentation of the second — meaning it was utilized for the combat sequences successful some The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Darth Vader's lightsaber. Image credit: Propstore.

In Empire, Darth Vader histrion David Prowse and stunt performer Bob Anderson some wielded the limb erstwhile the quality confronted Luke Skywalker successful Cloud City — and indeed, accumulation photos associated with the auction suggest it was in-hand erstwhile Vader delivered his iconic enactment that reveals Luke's existent parentage.

In Return of the Jedi, this aforesaid prop was utilized again, successful the climactic combat betwixt Vader and Skywalker aboard the Second Death Star. There's constricted grounds that the leaf was besides utilized successful the archetypal Star Wars: A New Hope, too, though this substance has not been conclusively confirmed.

"As expected from a prop that saw extended usage, the portion bears authentic signs of wear," a papers describing the portion states. "Far from diminishing its value, these marks service arsenic compelling grounds of the lightsaber's nonstop engagement successful the enactment — testament to its film-used authenticity.

"Darth Vader's leader dueling lightsaber stands arsenic 1 of the astir historically important Star Wars artifacts ever presented astatine auction," the statement continues. "This is the limb of the astir recognizable quality successful subject fabrication history, featured successful the astir critically acclaimed movie of the franchise, The Empire Strikes Back, and successful the trilogy’s epic conclusion, Return of the Jedi. The lightsaber has go the astir iconic sci-fi limb of each clip — instantly recognizable and unmatched successful cinematic legacy. This is the finest illustration of a genuine lightsaber with verifiable surface usage ever offered astatine nationalist auction."

For thing (slightly) much affordable, yesterday brought the authoritative unveiling of LEGO's latest Star Wars Death Star acceptable — priced astatine the comparatively inexpensive $1,000.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social