Price wars: The 20 most expensive movie props ever sold

Sale price: $336,000Steve McQueen was at the top of his game when he starred as Michael Delaney in the 1971 race-car actioner Le Mans. Soon after the movie opened, a teen won second prize in a magazine contest: the Gulf racing suit (complete with patches), underwear, and helmet worn by the car-loving McQueen in the movie. The kid was apparently disappointed: he really wanted the contest’s grand prize, namely a Porsche 914. But it didn’t turn out too badly for him. The suit, underwear, and helmet (which got used as a motorcycle helmet!) stayed in the family for 46 years, until RM Sotheby’s sold the coveted combo in 2017.

Sale price: $437,000Among the most mythical of swords in J.R.R. Tolkein’s fantasy franchise was Anduril, the majestic weapon wielded by Aragorn in the Lord Of The Rings. In the blockbuster Peter Jackson trilogy, Viggo Mortensen portrayed Aragorn and hoisted the sword. A thing of beauty, its Tolkien-penned etchings read: Anar. Nányë Andúril I né Narsil i macil Elendilo. Lercuvantan i móli Mordórëo. Isil” (Sun. I am Andúril who was once Narsil, sword of Elendil. The slaves of Mordor shall flee from me. Moon” and “Narsil essenya, macil meletya; Telchar carnéron Návarotessë” (“Narsil is my name, a mighty sword; Telchar made me in Nogrod”). Designed by John Howe, made by Peter Lyon, it was sold by the collection of Sir Christopher and Lady Lee in 2014.

Sale price: $450,000Mark Hamill surely went through a bunch of prop lightsabers during his many years and multiple movies as Luke Skywalker, but one that our favorite Jedi used in both A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back (in the scene where it’s frozen and he dislodges it) wound up in the collection of veteran Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz. Not long before Kurtz’s death in 2018, the lightsaber went up for auction in 2017, which was when it was acquired by Ripley’s. Fans can check it out at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Hollywood, where it’s on public display.

Sale price: $805,000Many of the pieces of classic memorabilia on this list sold for more than the initial auction estimate price—and in several instances, well over the estimate. Interestingly, the glorious, colorful, and working car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang closed a great deal below the $1 million-$2 million estimate placed on it by the auctioneers at Profiles in History. Someone drove off with the vehicle—built by the Ford Racing Team based on a design by Ken Adam, and the only drivable one of the six made for the production—for a relative bargain price in 2011. Come on, Dick Van Dyke rode in it!

Sale price: $898,000 ($1.1 million with the premium included)Sometimes it pays to be on the Dark Side. The fiberglass mask and helmet that David Prowse sported while portraying the villainous Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back sold at auction in 2019. The price was a substantial increase from the original estimate by Profiles in History, which estimated a sale range of $250,000-$450,000 for what they called the “Holy Grail of science fiction artifacts.” Clearly, the unidentified buyer, presumably a hardcore Star Wars fan, wanted it badly—very badly.

Sale price: $920,000Audrey Hepburn, in the opening scene of 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, created an unforgettable moment—for both the fashion world and cinema—when she wore what would quickly become an iconic little black dress. In 2006, that dress was graciously provided by its designer, Hubert de Givenchy, to support—in the spirit of Hepburn’s inspirational work—the charity City of Joy Aid, which helps disadvantaged kids all over the globe. The dress, which was estimated to sell for between $80,000 and $130,000, ultimately fetched nearly 10 times that amount.

Sale price: $997,000Now here’s a wild story for you. A Long Island couple purchased a storage unit for a mere $100 in 1989. Among its contents? One of the eight 1976 Lotus Esprits utilized while making The Spy Who Loved Me. Even better? It was the very one used for the Bond adventure’s underwater sequences. Stranger still? The couple knew nothing at all about Ian Fleming’s superspy. Cut to 2013, when RM Sotheby’s sold it for them at auction. The buyer, who was a secret at the time, turned out to be none other than Elon Musk.

Sale price: $1.2 millionJohn Travolta cut a rug and launched a sensation with his inimitable disco moves on a dance floor that flashed blue, yellow, and red in tune to a variety of hit songs heard in Saturday Night Fever. Well, it was a real dance floor in a real Brooklyn club called 2001 Odyssey. Vito Bruno, who used to work at 2001 Odyssey, bought the floor at auction in 2005, and in 2017, he put it up for auction again via Profiles in History. An anonymous bidder purchased it for more than $1 million. For some context, the illuminating dance floor cost $15,000 to create.

Sale price: $1.3 millionBack in 2013 Profiles in History offered up a package featuring several items from Robert Wise’s classic big-screen musical, The Sound of Music. The hodge-podge lot included the dress that leading lady Julie Andrews wore while performing “Do-Re-Mi” for the Von Trapp kids, the yellow skirt and blouse from when Maria returned from her honeymoon, a purple wool cape worn by Andrews, Kurt’s “So Long, Farewell” jacket, seven Von Trapp kids’ school uniforms, and a four-page Von Trapp family history signed by Maria Von Trapp.

Sale price: $1.54 millionOscar winners these days are not allowed to sell their golden statuettes, but that’s a fairly new rule. So, there was no stopping it when producer David O. Selznick’s Oscar for 1939’s Gone with the Wind went up for auction through Sotheby’s in 1999. Estimated to sell for $300,000, it went for nearly four times that price to a noted movie aficionado named Michael Jackson. And here’s the really crazy part: When the executors of Jackson’s estate did an accounting of his belongings and assets following his death in 2009, the Oscar was missing. Whoever has it must be a smooth criminal, as it’s still missing!

Sale price: $2 millionThere’s no place like home, indeed. Craftsmen (including costume designer Adrian and the Innes Shoe Company) made at least four sets of ruby slippers for Judy Garland to wear during the production of The Wizard of Oz. Various pairs have sold for astronomical amounts over the years, but in 2012 Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up to buy the slippers purportedly worn by Garland (and shot in close-up) during the immortal heel-clicking sequence. Spielberg and DiCaprio then donated the shoes to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, where they’re available for all to see.

Sale price: $2.76 millionWe’re not quite sure how we feel about this one, to be honest. Profiles in History snagged an out-of-this-world price of almost $3 million in 2017 for an R2-D2 comprised of parts from across the original Star Wars trilogy. Which parts of the 43-inch droid unit appeared in what film? Your guess is as good as ours. It’s worth noting that this same auction yielded the sales of the aforementioned Saturday Night Fever dance floor, Darth Vader helmet/mask, and Luke Skywalker lightsaber.

Sale price: $3,070,000A little known fact about the Cowardly Lion costume made for Bert Lahr when he played the beloved character in The Wizard of Oz: it was crafted from actual lion skin and fur, something that would understandably not be allowed today. Bonhams sold the costume at an auction in New York City in November 2014, on behalf of its owner, avid film and television memorabilia collector and preservationist James Comisar. The sale was a roaring success (sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves).

Sale price: $3.1 millionOscar- and Emmy-nominated model designer Greg Jein—who passed away in 2022—was best known for his long association with Star Trek, as he worked on several original cast features as well as The Next Generation, among other franchise productions. After he died, it took two auctions—both held in October 2023—to sell off his collection of both items he created as well as pieces that Jein purchased over the years. One item, found in a box in his garage, was the long-missing X-Wing starfighter model used in the first Star Wars movie.

Sale price: $3.4 millionThe upright miniature piano on which Casablanca’s Sam (Dooley Wilson) played “As Time Goes By” at the insistence of his old friend, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) sold at a Bonhams auction in New York in 2014. Oh, and the buyer also got a signed picture of Wilson. Not included? Rick’s letters of transit. Those sold, separately, for $118,750.

Sale price: $3.7 millionOnce upon a time Debbie Reynolds paid $100,000 for the Ascot dress and hat that Cecil Beaton designed for Audrey Hepburn to wear as Eliza Doolittle in the 1964 release My Fair Lady. Hepburn famously wore it for the scene in which Eliza debuts at the Ascot Derby. The film won eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Color Costume Design (for Beaton). Many years later, in 2011, Reynolds put the dress up for auction. She did quite nicely on her investment, selling the outfit at a 37x premium to her original purchase price.

Sale price: $4,085,000, plus a $585,000 buyer’s premiumAs far as anyone knows, only one Maltese Falcon statue was used for the Humphrey Bogart classic of the same name, (though two were made), making the black bird an instant Holy Grail piece for serious collectors. So, when Bonhams and Turner Classic Movies teamed up for a major auction in 2013 they didn’t even bother to provide an estimate for the 12-inch-tall, 45-pound item. The winner initially went unidentified. It was later revealed to be billionaire Las Vegas hotelier Steve Wynn.

Sale price: $4.6 millionThere are few movie scenes more iconic than the one in The Seven Year Itch in which Marilyn Monroe’s white dress billows in the air as she walks across a New York City subway grate/vent, prompting her to try to hold it down. Guess who owned the dress, and sold it in 2011 … Debbie Reynolds. The sale price of $4.6 million more than doubled Profile in History’s $2 million pre-sale estimate. Reynolds was in debt at the time and sold off most of the 3,000-plus pieces she’d acquired over the decades for a museum she’d long dreamed of opening.

Sale price: $5.375 millionIt was, in 2017, the highest price ever paid for a movie prop. Someone ponied up for Robby the Robot from 1956’s influential science fiction fave, Forbidden Planet. The final cost was $4.6 million, plus a hefty buyer’s premium to Bonhams. The 7-foot-tall robot was designed by MGM’s Robert Kinoshita, Arnold Gillespie, Irving Block, Mentor Huebner, and Arthur Lonergan, and cost a whopping $100,000-$125,000 to build, a sizable chunk of the film’s $1.97 million budget. Robby was actually part of a Forbidden Planet auction lot that also included an auxiliary control panel, the original MGM packing crates, and Robby’s awesome Jeep.