In what was possibly one of the most breathless spans of over 10 minutes of bidding, nine potential buyers had their eyes locked on the original Birkin bag at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris. Shaping up to be a race against time encouraged by big-pocketed enthusiasts, the bid ultimately slipped in the favour of an unidentified private Japanese collector.
The big winner of the day snapped up the very first Hermes Birkin bag, which set forth a template for the notoriously expensive and excessively desired line of fashion accessory, for €8.6m (£7.4m; $10.1m). And yet, its record-breaking position as the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction was still not enough to soar past the most valuable fashion item ever sold.
Original Birkin Bag’s auction comes second to most expensive fashion item sold
The iconic memorabilia in question is none other than timeless Ruby Red Slippers from the evergreen fantastical saga of The Wizard of Oz, which sold for $32.5 million last year.
According to the official Heritage Auctions website, the one-of-a-king Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland in the original Wizard of Oz were auction off for “hammer price” $28 million, but ultimately amounted to $32.5 million, including the “buyer’s premium.” The auction house originally believed the slippers would sell for $3 million, but the intense December 7 bidding war resulted in a new mindboggling reality altogether.
Years before the record-smashing bid, the Wizard of Oz slippers were stolen in August 2005 while they were on display at the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota. According to the New York Times, art collector Michael Shaw, the actual owner, had lent them to the museum. Eventually, “law enforcement offered a $250,000 reward early in the case, and a fan in Arizona offered another $1 million in 2015,” as per AP.
They were finally found in Minneapolis as part of a 2018 “sting operation.” Terry J Martin was indicted in May 2023 with “one count of theft of a major artwork.” Jerry Hal Saliterman was also charged with theft as he was said to have been Martin’s accomplice.
Original Birkin bag: The most expensive handbag sold at auction
The original black leather bag, including a non-removable strap, is stamped with singer Jane Birkin’s initials. It was made for style icon in 1985 after what was nothing less than a legendary moment that the fates conspired to pull off. After spilling her belongings in a plastic bag, as she sat next to the Hermes boss on a flight, the two got talking. Birkin complained how the luxury fashion house did not make bigger bags.
Sketching out a fresh and practical design on an airplane sickness bag, she paved the way for the Birkin prototype’s creation, setting off a chain of reaction that ultimately led the fashion world to embracing subsequently introduced line of Hermes bags, as we know them today.
Noticeable differences in the original Birkin bag and its successors include the former bearing gilded brass hardware instead of gold-plated hardware and smaller studs than those used on the latter, according to Forbes.
The purse in question bought off by a Japanese buyer on Thursday particularly bears marks of use as Jane Birkin treated it like any other bag. And so, the fashion item also has personalisations, including stickers and other such paraphernalia.
Prior to this record-breaking auction bid for the OG Birkin bag, the fashion icon who inspired the purse line donated her possession to an auction benefiting French AIDS charity Association Solidarité Sid in 1994. Jane Birkin who died in 2023, owned it for a decade.
Thereafter, Parisian collector Catherine Benier scored it at an auction in 2000, and called it hers for 25 years until the Thursday sale.
An Hermes Kelly 28, fetching $513,040 in November 2021, previously held the most expensive handbag ever sold tag.
