Luke Skywalker's Empire Strikes Back lightsaber with severed hand attached auctioned for $4.8m


LOS ANGELES — A lightsaber with Luke Skywalker's severed hand from "The Empire Strikes Back" has sold for US$3.75 million (S$4.8 million) at auction.
Heritage Auctions announced the results of its Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction on Monday (July 20).
The lightsaber, used onscreen by Mark Hamill in the climactic Cloud City fight where Darth Vader declares "I am your father" in the 1980 Star Wars sequel, included a severed hand effects rig used for when Vader sliced it off.
Heritage said the price was the highest ever fetched for a prop used in a Star Wars film.
A Wicked Witch of the West hat worn by actor Margaret Hamilton in 1939's The Wizard of Oz brought in US$550,000 at the auction, and the cocoa-coloured top hat worn by Gene Wilder as the title character in 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory went for US$350,000.
Daenerys Targaryen's chest with dragon eggs inside from the first season of Game of Thrones brought in US$312,500.
Two rugs essential to the convoluted plot of The Big Lebowski also sold.
The one belonging to Jeff Bridges' the Dude that "really tied the room together" and is soiled at the beginning of the 1998 film went for US$350,000.
And the nicer one that he takes from his wealthy namesake outdid it with a price of US$375,000. The rugs went for far more than expected. Bidding began on each at US$15,000.
The items' buyers and sellers were not identified.
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