The painting that introduced ‘Star Wars’ to the world nearly 50 years ago — and was reproduced in an iconic movie poster — sold at auction on Wednesday for $3.875 million.

The acrylic and airbrush painting by the artist and movie poster designer Tom Jung first appeared in newspaper advertisements on May 13, 1977, a little less than two weeks before the space epic created by George Lucas opened. It also adorned billboards, magazine ads and theatre programmes.