The first-ever Hermes Birkin bag sold at Sotheby’s Paris on Thursday for a record-breaking €8.6 million ($10 million), with fees, to an anonymous Japanese buyer.
While Sotheby’s did not reveal details of the buyer, a source with knowledge of the sale told ARTnews Lauren Sanchez, the new Mrs. Jeff Bezos, was an anonymous underbidder on the bag. (However, a source close to Sanchez and Bezos denied that she had bid.)
A live stream of the sale on Thursday showed a taut 10-minute bidding volley between nine collectors soundtracked by gasps as paddles drove the price immediately above €1 million—the starting point of advanced bidding.
It’s no understatement to call the lot a cultural artifact: Thanks to its epochally chic namesake, the thick-skinned, custom crafted leather tote has epitomized the popular imagination of Francophone taste. Afforded by few, forged by many; one Sex and the City storyline even centered on Samantha’s ultimately doomed quest for a Birkin.
The original Birkin has passed through several private hands after Birkin sold it in 1994 to help fund AIDS research. However it has made a few public appearances since, most notably in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The bag was last offered at auction 25 years ago, by a seller named by Sotheby’s as “Catherine B,” who said in a statement quoted by CNN that the sale “made me relive my own bidding battle … and how raw and indescribable the feeling of winning over this wonderful bag was.”
In a statement following Thursday’s sale, Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and accessories, described the sale as “an important milestone” for the history of luxury fashion.
“It is a startling demonstration of the power of a legend and its capacity to ignite the passion and desire of collectors seeking exceptional items with unique provenance,” she said in the press release. “The sale of the Original Birkin is also, ultimately, a celebration of the enduring spirit and appeal of its muse, Jane Birkin.”
