Jane Birkin’s original Hermès bag sells for over $10 million at Sotheby’s auction in Paris

The original Hermès Birkin bag once worn by late actor and singer Jane Birkin has been auctioned off in Paris for over $10 million, making it the most valuable handbag ever sold at auction, Sotheby’s said Thursday. 

The bag sold for $10.1 million after more than 10 minutes of “heated bidding,” the auction house said on social media. Sotheby’s did not say who bought the leather handbag. 

Before the auction, the bag belonged to a private collector. It was briefly on display in New York City before being sold in Paris as part of Sotheby’s Fashion Icons auction. 

The original Hermès Birkin bag was built specifically for Jane Birkin after a chance meeting in 1984. While on an Air France flight, Birkin complained to then-Hermès leader Jean-Louis Dumas that she couldn’t find a purse big enough to hold everything she carried daily, Sotheby’s said. She was a young mother and couldn’t find a bag that fit her needs, according to Hermès.

Dumas quickly sketched a design, “with a dedicated space for her baby’s bottles!” Hermès says, and fashion history was made.

“The Original Birkin bag is a true one-of-a-kind — a singular piece of fashion history that has grown into a pop culture phenomenon that signals luxury in the most refined way possible,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said in a statement announcing the auction. 

In the decades since, the Hermès Birkin has become an iconic, highly in-demand and expensive luxury accessory. The bag is now made in a variety of colors, sizes and leather types. Sotheby’s resells a range of Birkin bags for between $5,000 and $220,000. Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas told “60 Minutes” in December that only a few craftspeople are trained in how to make the bag, so there is always more demand than supply. 

“Whatever we have, we put on the shelf and it goes,” he said.