Luke Skywalker’s iconic lightsaber from the first “Star Wars” film is going up for auction in Los Angeles next week and could fetch up to $200,000.
The lightsaber will lead the auction that includes over 25 other rare “Star Wars” items.
“Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber from ‘Star Wars: A New Hope,’ 1977, the original Star Wars, came from the set decorator who won the Academy Award for the film. We’re expecting $150-250,000 on that piece,” Brian Chanes, Head of Acquisitions and Consignment Relations for Auction House Profiles in History, told Reuters.
The “Star Wars” movie franchise has made billions of dollars at the box office worldwide, and props and costumes can fetch sky-high prices at auction.
Last year, Profiles in History sold another lightsaber used on-screen by Hamill in both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back for a record $450,000.
Despite previous auction successes, this year’s collection is bound to be special.
“As far as ‘Star Wars’ memorabilia is concerned, this offering is unprecedented,” Chanes said. “You don’t have so many items like the screen-used lightsaber, screen-used Stormtrooper and TIE Fighter helmets, the cameras that were used for all the visual effect sequences.”
“You just will not see another grouping like this ever offered again,” he added.
The lightsaber up for auction was used by actor Mark Hamill’s young Skywalker character in “Star Wars: A New Hope” and was designed by Oscar-winning set decorator Roger Christian.
“We also have very large portions of the Death Star surface from the low altitude ranges when the X-wing fighters were coming to attack the Death Star in the very first Star Wars movie,” Chanes told Reuters.
“Another fantastic item that we have is a historic piece and it won an Academy Award for technical prowess and it is the Empireflex camera, which actually has its own custom-made carbon fiber housing,” Chanes said.
Director George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic company designed the high-speed visual effects camera.
It was used on “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T.” and other Hollywood blockbusters.
The camera is expected to fetch up to $150,000.
As if those weren’t enough rare items, Chanes said: “We also have, in the ‘Star Wars’ section, we have an original pair of C-3PO gloves that were originally donated by George Lucas by a charity auction in the mid-1980s for his daughter’s school. And those are going to be sold. And those are $40-60,000.”
The “Star Wars” items will be available at the Profiles in History Hollywood auction in Los Angeles from Dec. 11-13.
