You Can Own Jane Birkin’s Original Birkin Bag Thanks to a New Sotheby’s Auction

Perhaps model’s maximum mythical bag goes up on the market, and we’re now not speaking about a list on TheRealReal. This summer season, Jane Birkin’s unique Birkin bag—sure, the only encumbered with scratches and decal marks—is up for public sale for the primary time in 25 years as a part of Sotheby’s “Fashion Icons” sale.

The OG Birkin used to be created for its namesake in 1984, following a run-in on an Air France flight with former Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas. The singer and actor defined her choice for enormous baggage to the businessman (on the time she famously used a wicker bag to retailer her necessities) who created a prototype for Birkin in a while after the stumble upon.

That identical bag, which includes a shoulder strap that used to be now not incorporated within the industrial model, is the only headed for public sale. According to Sotheby’s, “the bag is presented in the exact condition in which it was last used by Jane.”

But ahead of the keepall reveals a brand new proprietor, it is going to pass on show at Sotheby’s flagship location in New York, from June 6 to 10, and on the group’s Paris galleries, from July 3 to 9. Previously, the object had simplest been publicly displayed two times, at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2018 and at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in London two years later.

Birkin, who kicked the bucket in 2023, donated the piece to the French AIDS charity, Association Solidarité Sida, in 1994. It used to be bought six years later by means of a Parisian collector, Catherine Benier.

Now, as for who may snag the piece and what sort of it is going to in the long run promote for continues to be observed.

“At this stage we will communicate it privately to potential bidders,” Morgane Halimi, the worldwide head of purses and model for Sotheby’s, informed the New York Times. “Obviously it is a one-of-a-kind piece, completely apart from any other handbag, or any other Birkin.”

Halimi persevered, “We are breaking records with Birkin bags on a regular basis at auction. We foresee it to be as unique as the Diana jumper or a worn jersey from the N.B.A. It has value because of what it is and what has happened because of that bag.”