Darth Vader's lightsaber from famous 'I am your father' scene sells for nearly $5m

Darth Vader's lightsaber from famous 'I am your father' scene sells for nearly $5m Darth Vader got the better of Luke Skywalker at auction as his lightsaber fetched $4.875million, topping the £3.75million paid for Luke's lightsaber and severed-hand prop in July The Force was strong in the auction room as Darth Vader’s famous lightsaber sold for nearly $5million. Auctioneers had expected the prop to fetch more than $1million, but a phone bidder snapped it up for $4.875million on Thursday – the highest figure ever paid for any Star Wars collectible. The lightsaber was used in the Cloud City duel in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, one of the most famous scenes in the series that sees Vader cuts off Luke Skywalker’s hand before dropping the family bombshell that changed the course of the films. “I am your father,” he tells Luke. The same prop was used again in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, when the pair faced each other in a rematch. Luke got the better of Darth Vader that time, but his old rival came out on top at auction. In July, Luke’s lightsaber and the special-effects rig used to show his severed hand sold together for $3.75million. That was the previous auction record for a Star Wars prop used on screen. Darth Vader also beat the $3.875million paid for Tom Jung’s original poster artwork for the first Star Wars film, which held the overall record for a collectible from the series. Brian Chanes, senior director of Hollywood and entertainment at Heritage Auctions, said Darth Vader’s lightsaber was “like the Holy Grail” to a Star Wars collector. He said: "It’s from the most iconic sequence of the entire franchise.” This version of the lightsaber was built for a fight. To make it sturdy enough to take interchangeable wooden blades, the prop makers reinforced the handle with aluminium and steel. The handle itself started life as a 1950s British camera flash attachment called a Microflash. The prop makers removed the manufacturer’s nameplate and added seven black plastic grips, decorative wiring and a strip of magnifying bubbles from a calculator. A D-shaped metal ring let Darth Vader hang it from his belt. For scenes where Darth Vader wasn’t fighting, the filmmakers used a separate bladeless handle. On the version sold at auction, some of the bolts used to reinforce it can still be spotted in production photos, although the performer’s hand often hid them. Heritage Auctions said Star Wars creator George Lucas took some inspiration from the legends of King Arthur. He pictured a futuristic “laser sword” carried by peacekeepers, designed to deflect blasts from the ray guns used elsewhere in the films. Heritage featured 27 other Star Wars lightsabers for the auction, including ones wielded by Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith. The sale drew on all nine films in the main Star Wars series. A blaster used by bounty hunter Boba Fett was among the other lots, along with a Yoda puppet hand from the character’s first appearance in The Empire Strikes Back. Memorabilia from other films and TV shows also went under the hammer.