You won’t believe how much Jane Birkin’s Birkin bag was auctioned off for at Sotheby’s

Scuffed edges, sticker stains, dull gilded brass fittings.

At first glance, it looked like any well-used, weathered leather tote bag.

But when Sotheby’s auctioneers opened bidding at €1 million on the morning of July 10, the gasps in the room and on livestream feeds confirmed what fashion insiders already knew: this was no ordinary handbag. This was the original Hermès Birkin.

Crafted in 1984 for the late British-French style icon Jane Birkin, the prototype was sold for an astonishing €8.6 million (US$10.1 million or S$13.6 million), including fees, to an unnamed private collector in Japan, according to multiple sources including CNN Style and Forbes.

The 10-minute bidding war involved nine determined participants and ended with the highest price ever paid at auction for a handbag.

From a sketch to a cultural relic

To grasp the significance of this sale, one must return to the widely retold flight in the early 1980s. Jane, then a young mother and actress balancing scripts with sippy cups, was seated next to Hermès executive Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight from Paris to London.

As the story goes, her overstuffed straw basket fell apart mid-flight. She lamented the absence of a bag that was both chic and functional. Dumas handed her an airsickness bag and asked her to sketch what she had in mind.

The result was a prototype that embodied ease and elegance: oversized, soft-structured, brass-hinged, and notably unprecious. It was delivered to her in 1985.

She used it almost daily, decorating it with humanitarian stickers by Médecins du Monde and UNICEF, (she served as a spokesperson for the former and also participated in campaigns and benefit events in support of the latter) over the years, tossing it around with reckless abandon, and fastening a nail clipper to the strap simply because it suited her needs. On the front flap the initials “J.B.” were discreetly engraved into the leather as a subtle mark of authorship that rendered the bag unmistakably hers.

In 1994, Jane donated the bag to an AIDS charity auction. It changed hands again in 2000, when Parisian boutique owner Catherine Benier acquired it, calling it “the jewel in my collection” in an earlier interview with The New York Times. The bag was later exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York before returning to private possession.

A legacy that outlived the muse

“Bless me, when I’m dead... people will possibly only talk about the bag,” she once quipped to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, half wry and half resigned.

Jane passed away in 2023 at the age of 76. Her life spanned cinema, music, and activism. Yet it is her name, stitched into the leather DNA of Hermès, that endures in retail temples, VIP waiting lists, and investment portfolios around the world.

The Straits Times reports that Benier, speaking through Sotheby’s, was astonished by the final sale price when it sold. “I’m already very nostalgic at the thought of knowing the bag is no longer mine, but extremely happy it has found a new loving home,” she said.

With that final bid, the bag earned its place in the fashion hall of fame: the original Birkin is now the second most valuable fashion item ever sold at auction, just behind the iconic ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, which fetched US$32.5 million (S$41.61 million) in 2024.

The mystique behind the millions

Unsurprisingly, rumours swirled in the lead-up to the auction. The Times noted that Kim Kardashian and Canadian rapper Drake were among the speculated bidders. Other rumoured names circulating online included Lauren Sánchez, Kris Jenner, and even Hermès itself, though none of these were confirmed by official sources.

On TikTok, names like Jamie Chua, Singapore’s Hermès collector with a fingerprint-secured closet, and the Olsen twins surfaced. Mary-Kate, in particular, famously popularised the “beaten bag” look in 2010 when she was  photographed carrying a weathered black Hermès Kelly with casual irreverence, echoing the very way Jane once carried hers.

While Sotheby’s remained discreet about the identities of the bidders, the guessing game only added to the mystique surrounding the final price.

From utility to asset class

Beyond its emotional resonance or symbolic allure, the Birkin’s value is also financial. A 2016 study by Baghunter found that Hermès Birkins outperformed both the S&P 500 and gold as long-term investments. According to Forbes, Sotheby’s had 239 Hermès Birkins listed on its resale platform as of July 2025, with asking prices ranging from US$8,000 (S$10,800) to over US$220,000 (S$297,000). Once conceived as a practical yet stylish solution for a working mother, the Birkin has since morphed into a commodity traded like art or real estate.

Far exceeding that of even the most decadent Hermès creations, the final price underscores how provenance now trumps opulence. According to several reports including CNA Lifestyle and CNN Style, Sotheby’s sold a white-diamond-studded Diamond Himalaya Birkin for over US$450,000 (S$607,500) in 2022. A year prior, Christie’s sold a crocodile-skin version for nearly US$390,000 (S$526,500). The previous record belonged to a diamond-and-crocodile Hermès Kelly, which fetched US$513,040 ($S690,404).

But even among its many high-yield successors, this original stands apart, surpassing them all in value without diamonds, crocodile skin, or gloss. Unlike the untouched Birkins tucked behind glass, this one wears its history openly: stickered, softened, scratched, and used with abandon.

More than an icon, the original Birkin is a chronicle marked by daily wear, global causes, and the carefree grace of Jane Birkin herself, who wore luxury the way most wear denim: with ease instead of exhibition. And that sense of character and charm is where the OG Birkin bag’s value truly lies.