One of the Hermès Birkin bags that belonged to Jane Birkin was sold on Friday for 2.45 million euros (costs included), or 2.3 million €, at auction in Abu Dhabi, a few months after the record sale of the original Birkin for 8.6 million euros, announced Sotheby’s.
Nicknamed The Birkin Voyageur, it was sold for six times more than the high estimate (370,000 euros) to a buyer on the telephone after “11 minutes of fierce bidding between six collectors,” the auction house told AFP.
Gifted by Hermès to Jane Birkin in 2003, this black leather bag, worn and decorated with handwritten inscriptions by the British singer and actress who died in 2023, is one of the four bags that the artist received after selling her emblematic prototype in 1994 for the benefit of an association fighting AIDS.
This bag stands out for its details, including closed bridges reminiscent of the prototype and the handwritten note “My Birkin bag that traveled with me around the world,” which inspired the bag’s nickname.
It was first sold at auction in 2007 for the benefit of a human rights association before entering a private collection.
“Selling her Birkin bags to raise funds for charity (…) has become a tradition for Jane Birkin, with Hermès replacing them each time,” recalls Sotheby’s.
In July, the very first Birkin bag designed especially for the artist in 1984 was sold in Paris for nearly 8.6 million euros, becoming the most expensive bag ever sold at auction.
Soon a third
A third personal Hermès bag from Jane Birkin is about to go under the hammer.
The Orne Enchères house will offer on December 15 at the Hôtel Drouot, in Paris, the copy that the artist had entrusted to her friend and biographer Gabrielle Crawford, who is putting it on sale to help finance a future Jane Birkin foundation, specifies Drouot in a press release.
Decorated with the star’s personal accessories, such as bells or Japanese lucky charms, the black leather bag is estimated at between 100,000 and 120,000 euros.
“It weighed a ton. But she and he were inseparable. She never forgot him,” recalls Gabrielle Crawford.
Another major piece put on sale for the benefit of the foundation, the original English typescript of the cult film “Je t’aime moi non plus”, annotated by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, is estimated between 15,000 and 18,000 euros.
