Handbag sells for £7.4m at auction

A handbag has sold for €8.6m (£7.4m) - becoming the most valuable ever sold at auction.

The orginal Hermes Birkin, which had belonged to and was named after British actor and singer Jane Birkin, went under the hammer at Sotheby's in Paris on Thursday. It is also now the second most expensive fashion item ever sold.

The bag was designed for Birkin, who starred in a number of French and British films from the 1960s onwards before her death in 2023. She happened to be seated next to Jean-Louis Dumas, then artistic director of Hermes, on an Air France flight in 1981.

Carrying all her items in a wicker basket, she complained to Dumas that the handbags available at the time tended to be too small to fit all of her belongings. The pair began sketching designs on the back of a sick bag, and by 1985, Hermes had produced a prototype and presented it to Birkin, requesting her permission to name the new style in her honour.

It has since become a status symbol, worn by celebrities including Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, Khloe Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez. Morgane Halimi, Sotheby's global head of handbags and fashion, said: "The spectacular sale of the original Hermes Birkin today at Sotheby's Paris marks an important milestone in the history of fashion and the luxury industry more widely.

"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, to own its origin." The previous world record for a handbag was the Hermes white Himalaya niloticus crocodile diamond retourne Kelly 28, which sold in 2021 for $513,040 (£380,000). The most expensive fashion item ever sold was the pair of ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland in the film The Wizard of Oz, which fetched $32.5m (£24m) in 2024..