Sale at Christie’s makes handbag most expensive ever to sell at European auction

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A secondhand diamond-encrusted Hermès bag has sold for £162,500 in London, becoming the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction in Europe.

The 10-year-old bag, made of Nile crocodile skin and said to be in “grade-two condition” with no obvious flaws, went under the hammer at Christie’s on Tuesday.

The Himalaya Birkin bag, which features an 18-carat, white gold, diamond-encrusted lock, exceeded its list price of £100,000-£150,000.

A 2006 version of the handbag in blue sold for £100,000 at the same auction.

The bag is 30cm wide, smaller than the original designed by the French fashion house in 1981.

Himalaya refers to the bag’s colour, which is said to resemble the snowy Asian mountain range, while Birkin is in honour of the singer and actor Jane Birkin.

Birkin met the chief executive of Hermès on a flight from Paris to London, and he offered to design her a holdall and asked if he could name it after her. She said she was “flattered to death” and replied: “Yes, yes, yes.”

Bags of this type are now some of the most sought-after accessories in the world and have been popularised by high-profile TV shows such as Sex and the City. In one episode, Kim Cattrall’s character Samantha pretends that the actress Lucy Liu is a client in order to get to the top of a waiting list for the bag.

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These days, you may spot Victoria Beckham, Céline Dion or Kim Kardashian with a Himalaya on their arm.

Such bags often have instant waiting lists as soon as they retail and there is also a buzz around them as investment pieces.

Art collectors have also been attracted to them, widening their appeal far beyond the traditional buyers of the crocodile-skin bags. Accordingly, the market is buoyant and largely driven by demand for Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags, which account for about 90% of global auction sales.

Two Hermès Birkin bags sold for £130,000 and £119,000 at Christie’s in Hong Kong last month, far exceeding their estimates.

It was the first time the diamond-encrusted Hermès Birkin bag had been offered in a European auction. The sale did not, however, manage to better the £253,000 record for a bag sold at auction – also a Hermès Birkin – set in Hong Kong last year.

That is the “undisputed most valuable bag in the world”, Christie’s said.