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THE Hermès Birkin bag prototype owned by the late actress Jane Birkin sold for US$10,1 Million or IDR163 billion at auction.
On July 10, the Hermès Birkin bag prototype owned by the late actress Jane Birkin was sold at Sotheby’s in Paris, France, for US$$10.1 million (approximately IDR163 billion at an exchange rate of IDR16,216).
According to a report from People on Thursday, the item, which was part of the Paris fashion icon’s collection, was sold to a Japanese bidder. Sotheby’s opened the auction for the Birkin Hermès bag starting at US$1.7 million.
“Today’s spectacular sale of the Hermès Birkin prototype at Sotheby’s Paris marked an important milestone in the history of fashion and the luxury industry as a whole. This is a surprising demonstration of the strength of a legend and its ability to inspire the desire of collectors looking for extraordinary, one-of-a-kind items,” said the Global Head of Handbags at Sotheby’s, Halie.
The Hermès Birkin offering war, a series that has been officially withdrawn from the market, involved nine participants, including those who bid by telephone and online, and lasted for ten minutes.
The sale of the iconic bag broke the previous record set by the pomegranate red shoes worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939), which sold for US$32.5 million in December 2024 in Dallas, Texas.
This made the Hermès Birkin the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction, surpassing the previous record holder, the Hermès White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Returnne Kelly 28, which sold for US$513,040 in 2021.
The Hermès Birkin bag has been around since 1981, beginning with a trip by Air France. At that time, Hermès’s artistic director, Jean-Louis Dumas, realized that Jane Birkin needed a fashionable and practical bag.
Dumas saw the belongings belonging to the actress falling from her favorite woven basket bag. In 1985, Hermès asked permission from Birkin to name the silhouette of the bag with his name. [antaranews]
