The late actress and singer Jane Birkin’s original Hermès handbag was sold at an auction yesterday in Paris for a record breaking €8.6 million (US$10 million), according to multiple media reports. The sum makes it the most valuable handbag ever sold at auction.
This bag was the very first prototype of the eponymous Birkin bag, which was custom-designed for Jane Birkin in 1984 through a chance encounter with Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas. Birkin famously sketched her ideal bag on an airplane sickness bag, leading to the creation of this coveted accessory.
The well-worn black leather bag features Birkin’s initials, silver nail clippers she kept for convenience, and the faded outlines of stickers from Médecins du Monde and UNICEF, marking its personal significance.
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Birkin carried the bag nearly daily from 1985 to 1994 before auctioning it for charity to raise funds for an AIDs charity, after which it changed hands among private collectors and appeared in major museum exhibitions.
The auction itself was a spectacle, with nine collectors fiercely competing as the bidding opened at €1 million (US$1.1 million) and quickly escalated. After a tense 10-minute battle, the hammer fell, with a private collector from Japan emerging victorious.
Birkin was a renowned British-French actress and singer, born in 1946 in London. She rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s, becoming an iconic figure in both cinema, music and fashion. Birkin once joked that her legacy would be synonymous with the Hermès Birkin handbag. She passed away in 2023, leaving behind a lasting impact on art and fashion.
