Overview

• A private Japanese collector paid €8.6 million (US$10.1 million) for the bag at Sotheby’s Paris on July 10.
• The sale eclipsed the previous handbag auction high of US$500,000 for Princess Grace of Monaco’s Hermès Kelly by over twentyfold.
• Conceived during a 1969 flight sketch by Jane Birkin and Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas, this one-off prototype was crafted in 1984.
• Jane Birkin donated the bag to an AIDS charity auction in 1994 before it appeared in exhibitions at MoMA in 2018 and the V&A in 2020.
• Hermès’s strict in-store scarcity policy has fueled a vibrant resale market where provenance and visible wear drive steep investment premiums.