Lucasfilm
Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back, one of the most iconic props in cinema history, just sold for one of the most staggering prices in auction history.
Heritage Auctions confirmed that Mark Hamill’s original screen-used Luke Skywalker lightsaber — the one he wielded during the climactic duel with Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back in the iconic scene that produced the “I am your father” reveal — sold for $3.75 million, setting a new world auction record for a screen-used Star Wars prop.
Mark Hamill’s original Luke Skywalker lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back sold for $3.75 million at auction — a new world record for a screen-used Star Wars prop
The lightsaber was originally offered at $1 million and expected to fetch somewhere between $1 million and $2 million. The $3.75 million final price obliterated that estimate and surpassed the previous Star Wars prop record — a 20-inch X-wing model from the original 1977 film that sold for $3.135 million in October 2023.
Luke Skywalker's screen used lightsaber used by Mark Hamill in "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) just sold at Heritage for $3.75 million. pic.twitter.com/RFlQXiS8vj
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 15, 2026
The lightsaber was constructed from a modified Graflex flash unit and came accompanied by the original severed-hand effects rig created by makeup artist Stuart Freeborn — the same man who helped create Yoda and many of the franchise’s other iconic creature effects. The lightsaber descended directly from Freeborn’s estate following his death in London in February 2013.
“This is one of the most important surviving Star Wars artifacts in existence,” said Heritage executive vice president Joe Maddalena. “Collectors understood that they were bidding on much more than a prop. They were competing for a genuine piece of modern mythology.”
The sale was part of Heritage’s ongoing Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction, which runs through July 17 and also features hats from The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Back to the Future II hoverboards, The Big Lebowski rugs, and boots worn by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky III.