The 10 most expensive film props ever auctioned

A film prop is a strange thing to own. It was built to be seen for a few seconds from one angle, often out of plywood, foam and paint, and its worth has almost nothing to do with the materials. What it has instead is a record: this exact object stood in that exact frame. The prices below are what that record is worth on an evening when two people both refuse to lose.

Every figure is the price as reported at the time of the sale, with the house and the date, so it can be checked. Where a report gives both a hammer price and a total including buyer's premium, both are given. Vehicles built for television rather than cinema, and celebrity clothing never worn on a set, are left out.

1. The ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz — $32.5 million

Heritage Auctions, December 2024. One of four surviving pairs worn by Judy Garland in 1939, and the pair stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005 and recovered by the FBI in 2018. Live bidding opened at $1.55 million against an estimate of three million or more. The hammer fell at $28 million; with buyer's premium the total came to $32.5 million, the highest price ever paid for any piece of film memorabilia.

2. The Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane — $14.75 million

Heritage Auctions, July 2025. One of the balsa sleds made for Orson Welles's 1941 film, and the object the whole story turns on. The director Joe Dante had owned it for around forty years after saving it from being thrown out. It is the second most expensive piece of film memorabilia ever sold, and the gap between it and the slippers is a reminder of how thin the air gets at the top.

3. The James Bond Aston Martin DB5 — $6,385,000

RM Sotheby's, Monterey, August 2019, against an estimate of four to six million dollars. This is not the principal Goldfinger car. It is one of two DB5s bought by Eon Productions for the launch of Thunderball, built to the same Q Branch specification, and the only one with all thirteen gadgets restored and working. It is the most expensive DB5 sold at auction, and the caveat matters: buyers pay for documented use, and this car's use was promotional.

4. Marilyn Monroe's dress from The Seven Year Itch — $5.52 million

Profiles in History, June 2011, from the Debbie Reynolds collection. The estimate was one to two million dollars. The hammer fell at $4.6 million and fees took the total to $5.52 million. For six years it was the highest price paid for any film costume or prop, and it is the clearest example on this list of an object whose fame rests on a single shot lasting a few seconds.

5. Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet — $5,375,000

Bonhams, New York, November 2017, a world record for a movie prop at the time. The lot was not only the seven-foot robot suit built by MGM designers for the 1956 film but also his motorised jeep, a spare head, the control console and the original MGM packing crates. Selling the whole group together rather than piece by piece is part of why the number is what it is.

6. The Maltese Falcon statuette — $4,085,000

Bonhams, New York, November 2013, in a sale curated with Turner Classic Movies, price including premium. The bird is lead, twelve inches high and weighs forty-five pounds. Two cast lead statuettes are known; this is the one confirmed by the Warner Bros. archives as having appeared in the 1941 film. Bonhams called it arguably the most important prop in cinema, which is the kind of claim a catalogue exists to make and a price exists to test.

7. Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back — $3.75 million

Heritage Auctions, July 2026, in an online sale that opened at one million dollars. The prop is the hilt Mark Hamill carried in the Cloud City duel, still attached to the severed hand cast from Hamill's own, with the spring-loaded release mechanism intact. It is the highest price paid for a screen-used Star Wars prop, and it beat the record set the previous year by a matter of about a hundred thousand dollars.

8. Darth Vader's lightsaber — $3,654,000

Propstore, Los Angeles, September 2025. The hammer price was $2.9 million; the rest is buyer's premium. The hilt was used in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, by David Prowse in the suit and by his stunt double Bob Anderson, and the auction house described it as the only hero lightsaber from the original trilogy with verifiable screen use ever offered publicly.

9. The piano from Casablanca — $3.4 million

Bonhams, New York, November 2014. The upright Sam plays when Ilsa asks for As Time Goes By has only fifty-eight keys, thirty fewer than a full piano, because it was built to be carried around a set. Bidding opened at $1.6 million and the lot closed roughly three minutes later. It came with a photograph signed by Humphrey Bogart and a piece of chewing gum stuck under the keyboard.

10. The Cowardly Lion costume from The Wizard of Oz — $3,077,000

Bonhams, New York, November 2014, in the same sale as the piano, opening at $1.6 million. The costume was made from real lion hides by the MGM designer Adrian, and because each hide carried its own markings, Bert Lahr had to wear this one suit through the whole shoot while stand-ins wore another. The wear on it is the provenance.

What a charity lot list can take from this

Look at the opening bids rather than the totals. The slippers opened at 1.55 million and closed at 28. The Cowardly Lion opened at 1.6 million and closed at just over three. In every case the opening number was a fraction of the result, because its job was not to protect the value of the lot but to get the first hand in the air. A low opening bid does not sell an object cheaply; it starts the contest that sets the price. Choosing those numbers for your own evening is worked through in the guide.

Notice too how often the lot was a group rather than a single object. Robby the Robot came with his jeep, his crates and a spare head. The Casablanca piano came with a signed photograph and someone's chewing gum. Bundling gives the catalogue something to say and the winner a story to tell afterwards. The same applies to a donated experience: name what is included, in detail, rather than describing it in the abstract.

The third lesson is about proof. Every price above survives scrutiny because the object came with paperwork: studio archives, a named previous owner, an FBI case file. Your guests will not ask for archival evidence, but they do want to know who donated the lot and what the winner receives. Three plain sentences per lot raise more money than a better photograph. There is more on the page for charities and galas and the art auctions page.

Finally, every one of these lots ran long. Bidding on the Casablanca piano took three minutes; the room was not hurried to a close. If a lot in your auction ends at a fixed second, the person still making up their mind never gets to decide, which is why a late bid should extend the lot rather than end it. That behaviour is described on the how it works page, and you can build a lot list and rehearse a full evening before committing to anything at getting started.

Prices as reported at the time of sale; totals include buyer's premium where stated.