A lightsaber carried by Darth Vader in two of the most famous duels in cinema has changed hands for $4.875 million, setting a world auction record for any object connected to Star Wars. The prop led Heritage Auctions' Ultimate Star Wars sale on 12 November, beating the figure the same piece achieved only fourteen months earlier and pushing past the previous overall record for the franchise.

Heritage describes the piece as the screen-matched hero dueling lightsaber wielded in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It was carried on screen by David Prowse in the Vader costume and by Olympic fencer Bob Anderson, who performed the fight choreography. The weapon appears in the Cloud City confrontation in which Vader reveals himself as Luke Skywalker's father, and again in the final throne-room duel. Specialists matched it to production stills through a distinctive curve in the D-ring on the rear of its shroud. No original blades from the prop are known to survive in private hands.

The result continues a rapid climb for the object. It sold through Propstore in September 2025 for $3.654 million, then a record for a screen-used Star Wars prop. Heritage broke that mark in July 2026 with Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and severed-hand effects rig at $3.75 million, and the Vader piece has now reclaimed the top spot. The previous record for any Star Wars collectible, $3.875 million for Tom Jung's original poster painting for A New Hope, was also beaten by almost $1 million.

The lightsaber headed a sale that Heritage billed as the largest gathering of the franchise's lightsabers ever offered at auction, with 27 further examples alongside material spanning all nine films and later television series. The house already holds the record for a Star Wars filming miniature, after the screen-matched Red Leader X-wing sold for $3.135 million in 2023.