A black leather Hermès Birkin bag previously owned by the actress and style icon Jane Birkin herself has sold at Sotheby’s for $2.9 million. The sale took place at the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 5, and was part of a 4-day sale featuring handbags, jewelry, watches, cars, and other luxury goods.
The bag—referred to as Le Birkin Voyageur, after the note written in silver ink on the interior leather—bears an inscription written by Birkin on the occasion of a 2007 charity auction for the International Federation for Human Rights. It reads, in French, “Pour la F.I.D.H dans le monde entier…Mon birkin bag qui a voyagé avec moi dans le monde entier…Love Jane B.” (English translation: “To the F.I.D.H across the world…My Birkin bag, which has traveled the world with me…Love, Jane B.”) Underneath an interior pocket flap, Birkin roughly sketched a reclining female nude. The bag has been in private hands since that auction.
Le Birkin Voyageur sold for well above its estimate of $240,000-$400,000, though at $2.8 million, it brought it significantly less than this summer’s record-breaking $10 million sale, also at Sotheby’s, of Hermès’s original Birkin bag. The prototype sold to Shinsuke Sakimoto, the CEO of luxury goods reseller Valuence Holdings Inc. That bag also had a charitable history; Birkin sold it in 1994 to help fund AIDS research.
Le Birkin Voyageur is one of four “replacement” bags Hermès gifted to Birkin after she donated the original. According to Sotheby’s, it was Birkin’s “everyday” bag from 2003 to 2007, “worn, loved, and filled with the ordinary yet treasured objects of her life.” Indeed, the condition report confirms that this item was well-used. The lock, key, and accompanying clochette (small leather pouch that held the key) are all missing, and the hardware and leather are heavily worn and scratched. “This is not just a piece of fashion history,” said Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, “but a deeply personal artifact from a cultural and style icon whose legacy continues to inspire.”
