The Most Expensive Movie Props Ever Sold at Auction
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Almost every list of the most expensive movie props is wrong, and it is wrong in a way that has nothing to do with the prices. The prices are mostly fine. The category is the problem.
Four different objects hold four different records, and which one you call “the most expensive movie prop” depends entirely on a definition nobody states.
The four answers
Prop: the Rosebud sled, $14,750,000. Heritage Auctions, 16 July 2025. A sled is handled on screen, is not worn, and is not a vehicle. It satisfies every definition in play, which makes it the correct answer.
Costume: the ruby slippers, $32,500,000. Heritage, 7 December 2024, on a hammer of $28,000,000. The largest number in the category by a distance, and footwear.
Vehicle: the Aston Martin DB5, $6,385,000. RM Sotheby’s, August 2019.
Memorabilia overall: the ruby slippers again. This is the phrase Heritage itself used, and the precision was deliberate.
Notice what Guinness World Records certified in 2017: Robby the Robot at $5,375,000 as the most valuable movie prop sold at auction. That was true when it was awarded. It has since been beaten by a sled, a pair of shoes and a car, and the entry is still quoted across the internet as though it stands.
The sled nobody has caught up with
Citizen Kane turns on a sled that burns in the last shot. Several balsa sleds were made and destroyed for that scene; the pine one used for the hero shots survived.
It had sold before, twice, and quietly. Steven Spielberg bought one for about $60,500 in 1982. Another made roughly $233,000 in 1996.
In July 2025 the last known surviving pine hero sled made $14,750,000 including premium.
That is more than double Robby the Robot and roughly triple the DB5, and it happened over a year ago. Search this topic now and the top results will still hand you a 2017 Guinness entry. The category has moved and the pages have not.
The verified results
Prices realised, premium included, unless stated.
| # | Item | Film | Price | Sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruby slippers (costume) | The Wizard of Oz | $32,500,000 | Heritage, 7 Dec 2024 |
| 2 | Rosebud sled | Citizen Kane | $14,750,000 | Heritage, 16 Jul 2025 |
| 3 | Aston Martin DB5, Thunderball promo car | Thunderball | $6,385,000 | RM Sotheby’s, 15 Aug 2019 |
| 4 | Subway dress (costume) | The Seven Year Itch | $5,520,000 | Profiles in History, 18 Jun 2011 |
| 5 | Robby the Robot, with jeep and console | Forbidden Planet | $5,375,000 | Bonhams, 21 Nov 2017, lot 1070 |
| 6 | Batmobile no. 1 (television) | Batman, 1966 series | $4,620,000 | Barrett-Jackson, Jan 2013 |
| 7 | Aston Martin DB5, FMP 7B, screen car | Goldfinger | £2,912,000 | RM Auctions, 27 Oct 2010 |
| 8 | Maltese Falcon statuette | The Maltese Falcon | $4,085,000 | Bonhams, 25 Nov 2013, lot 225 |
| 9 | Luke Skywalker lightsaber | The Empire Strikes Back | $3,750,000 | Heritage, Jul 2026 |
| 10 | Darth Vader hero lightsaber | Empire / Return of the Jedi | $3,654,000 | Propstore, 4 Sep 2025 |
| 11 | Casablanca piano | Casablanca | $3,400,000 | Bonhams, 24 Nov 2014 |
| 12 | X-wing filming miniature, Red Leader | Star Wars | $3,135,000 | Heritage, Oct 2023 |
| 13 | Cowardly Lion costume | The Wizard of Oz | $3,077,000 | Bonhams, 24 Nov 2014, lot 128 |
| 14 | E.T. animatronic | E.T. | $2,560,000 | Julien’s, Dec 2022 |
| 15 | Dorothy’s gingham dress | The Wizard of Oz | $1,560,000 | Bonhams, 23 Nov 2015 |
| 16 | Han Solo DL-44 blaster | Star Wars | $1,057,500 | Rock Island, Aug 2022 |
| 17 | The floating door | Titanic | $718,750 | Heritage, Mar 2024 |
Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress from My Fair Lady is usually placed around number nine. It is left out here because the sources disagree materially, $3.7m against $4.5m, and I cannot resolve which is the sale total.
The error everyone has copied
Marilyn Monroe’s subway dress is listed at $4.6 million almost everywhere.
That is the hammer price. The buyer paid roughly a million more in premium, for a total of $5,520,000. The Hollywood Reporter headlined $4.6m and CNN headlined $5.6m in the same week, describing one sale.
This matters more here than in most categories, because it changes the order. A list ranking Monroe at $4.6m against Robby the Robot at $5,375,000 puts Robby above her. On like-for-like premium-inclusive figures, Monroe is above Robby. The ranking most sites publish is an artefact of mixing two conventions.
The Maltese Falcon shows the same arithmetic done correctly, and it is worth stating plainly because it is often mangled: the statuette hammered at $3,500,000, the premium was $585,000, and the price realised was $4,085,000. The premium is inside that figure, not added on top of it.
Two Aston Martins, nine years apart
The DB5 is where this category’s sloppiness is most visible.
The car that sold for $6,385,000 in 2019 is one of two promotional cars, built by Eon and fitted with Q-Branch gadgets for the Thunderball publicity tour. Goldfinger specification, no Goldfinger screen time.
The car that actually appeared in Goldfinger and Thunderball, registration FMP 7B, sold in London in October 2010 for £2,912,000, roughly $4.6 million at the time.
A third DB5 was stolen in 1997 and has never been recovered, and it gets folded into the story too.
Captions putting “$6.4 million” under the words “the Goldfinger car” are describing a press vehicle. The screen car is worth less and is a better object.
What I am leaving out
Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr President” dress sold for $4.81 million at Julien’s in 2016 and appears on most movie-prop lists. It is not from a film. It is a concert gown and it does not belong in this category.
I have also left out lot numbers for most rows. Bonhams publishes them permanently and I have used them where they exist. Heritage assigns them but blocks automated retrieval, so rather than guess I have left the field empty.
The buyer of the ruby slippers is widely speculated about and has not been confirmed by any source I could verify, so no name appears here.
What the sled says about the market
My read is that the Rosebud result is the most interesting number in this category and the least discussed, because a sled is an unglamorous object with no gadget, no logo and no franchise.
The slippers, the lightsabers and the DB5 all carry a fandom that bids. A pine sled from a 1941 film that lost money on release carries film history and nothing else, and it still cleared fourteen million dollars.
That suggests the ceiling in this market is set by singularity rather than by audience size. There is one surviving hero sled and there is no version of Citizen Kane without it. Whereas there are multiple lightsabers, multiple DB5s, and more than one pair of ruby slippers.
The next test is already visible. Heritage sold Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber for $3,750,000 in July 2026 and Propstore sold Vader’s for $3,654,000 ten months earlier. Two hero lightsabers from the same trilogy, sold within a year, at almost the same price. That looks like a market finding a level rather than a record being chased, which is usually what happens just before the numbers stop rising.
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🏆 Top Takeaways to Success
- 1
The Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane sold for $14,750,000 in July 2025 and is the correct answer to "most expensive movie prop". Most published lists have not caught up.
- 2
The ruby slippers made $32,500,000 in December 2024, but they are a costume, which is why Heritage carefully called them the most valuable movie memorabilia rather than the most expensive prop.
- 3
The $6,385,000 Aston Martin DB5 is not the Goldfinger screen car. It is a promotional car built for the Thunderball publicity tour. The actual screen car sold in 2010 for £2,912,000.
- 4
Guinness certified Robby the Robot in 2017 and the entry is still quoted as current everywhere. It has been beaten by the sled, the slippers and the DB5.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most expensive movie prop ever sold?+
The Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane, at $14,750,000, sold at Heritage Auctions on 16 July 2025. It is billed as the last known surviving pine hero sled. A sled is not a costume and not a vehicle, so it satisfies every definition of a prop, and it is more than double the Robby the Robot figure most lists still lead with.
Are the ruby slippers the most expensive movie prop?+
They are the most expensive piece of film memorabilia, at $32,500,000 (Heritage, 7 December 2024, hammer $28,000,000), but they are footwear, so they are a costume. Heritage's own record language says "most valuable movie memorabilia", carefully avoiding the word prop. This pair is the one stolen in 2005 and recovered in 2018.
How much did the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 sell for?+
Two different cars get conflated. The $6,385,000 car (RM Sotheby's, August 2019) is one of two promotional cars built for the Thunderball publicity tour to Goldfinger specification. The actual screen car, registration FMP 7B, sold at RM Auctions in London in October 2010 for £2,912,000. Captioning the higher figure "the Goldfinger car" is wrong.
How much did Marilyn Monroe's subway dress sell for?+
$5,520,000 including buyer's premium, at the Debbie Reynolds sale in June 2011. The $4.6 million figure repeated across the internet is the hammer price. Lists that rank the $4.6m hammer against premium-inclusive figures for other lots put them in the wrong order.
What is the difference between a prop and a costume?+
A prop is an object handled or used on screen. A costume is worn. The distinction sounds pedantic and it decides every record in this category: by prop the answer is a sled at $14.75m, by costume it is a pair of shoes at $32.5m, and by vehicle it is a car at $6.385m.
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Sources
- Robby the Robot, lot 1070 (Bonhams New York, 21 November 2017)
- The Maltese Falcon statuette, lot 225 (Bonhams New York, 25 November 2013)
- Ruby slippers sell for $32.5 million (NBC News, December 2024)
- Rosebud sled slides to $14.75 million finish (Antiques and the Arts)
- Records shattered at RM Sotheby's, including the Thunderball DB5 (Aston Martin)
