Spacecraft discovered in cardboard box belonging to late model-maker Greg Jein becomes the ‘most expensive Star Wars screen-used prop sold at auction’

A long-lost prop from the original 1977 Star Wars film has sold in an auction for a record-breaking US$3.135m.

The prop, a 20-inch model of an X-Wing starfighter that was used in the climactic battle sequence of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, had been considered missing for decades before it was discovered in a cardboard box in the garage of the Oscar-nominated model-maker Greg Jein. Jein died in May last year at the age of 76.

On Sunday the X-Wing became the “most expensive Star Wars screen-used prop sold at auction”, according to a statement from Joe Maddalena, an executive vice-president at Heritage Auctions, who facilitated the sale.