Luke Skywalker lightsaber and Wizard of Oz hat hit auction
Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber and the Wicked Witch’s hat head to auction as film props turn into seven-figure assets with investment-grade appeal.
Heritage Auctions is bringing Luke Skywalker’s screen-used lightsaber and Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West hat to its Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction, a five-day sale set for July 13-17, 2026. The lot list stretches across nearly a century of entertainment history, with opening bids that put some of the most recognizable objects in movie history into the same price range as fine art and rare collectibles.
The Star Wars prop comes from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back and includes the severed hand effects rig used in the climactic Cloud City duel with Darth Vader. Heritage has set bidding on the lightsaber at $1 million. The auction also includes John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for If I Fell, written on the reverse of an unfolded Valentine’s Day card while he was traveling to New York for The Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, with bidding starting at $500,000.
From the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Wicked Witch of the West hat from the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz is expected to start at $100,000. Heritage has described the piece as one of cinema’s most recognizable costume artifacts, and the hat was designed by MGM costumer Adrian. The interior bears the marking “M. Hamilton 4461-164,” and Smithsonian Magazine has noted that it measures nearly 14 inches tall, with a 19.5-inch brim and a 22-inch elastic chin strap.
Heritage’s push comes after a record-setting run in movie memorabilia. On December 7, 2024, Dorothy’s ruby slippers sold at Heritage for $32.5 million, becoming the most valuable piece of movie memorabilia ever sold at auction. That same sale totaled $38,615,188 and drew more than 1,800 bidders worldwide, underscoring how far the market for screen-used objects has moved beyond nostalgia into high-value collecting.
The Wicked Witch hat has its own collecting history. Heritage said it was part of Michael Shaw’s Hollywood on Tour and came from legendary collector Kent Warner. Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s executive vice president, has described it as the finest example of the hat known to exist. In the 2024 sale, the hat was tied to the Arrival in Munchkinland sequence.
The 2026 auction also features Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory top hat, Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky III boxing boots, the two hero rugs from The Big Lebowski, Elsa Lanchester’s necklace from Bride of Frankenstein, and the Otto the Autopilot prop from Airplane! Heritage says some of the pieces have been preserved for decades and are being offered publicly for the first time, a sign of how studio-era objects and franchise-era icons now carry the weight of blue-chip cultural assets.
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