The original Birkin bag, crafted for late British actress and singer Jane Birkin, sold at auction in Paris for a record €8.6 million (about Rwf14.5 billion), Sotheby’s announced.

The auction drew global attention as nine bidders drove the price from a €1 million (Rwf1.6 billion) opening to a final offer made by a private collector in Japan after a tense 10-minute exchange. The sale shattered multiple records, including the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction, the most valuable fashion item auctioned in Europe, and the priciest luxury item in Sotheby’s Paris history.

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Unlike the commercial versions of the Birkin bag, which are known for their exclusivity and years-long waiting lists, this prototype is the only one of its kind. It features a fixed shoulder strap, a nail clipper, and Birkin’s initials, "J.B.”, embossed on the leather. Faint glue marks remain from stickers she placed on it to support humanitarian causes like Médecins du Monde and UNICEF. The bag was auctioned in the exact condition Birkin last used it.

Birkin, who died in 2023, famously inspired the bag’s design during a chance encounter in 1984 with Jean-Louis Dumas, then chairman of Hermès. Seated beside him on a flight from Paris to London, she described her frustration at not finding a handbag spacious enough for her needs as a young mother.

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Dumas encouraged her to sketch her ideal version on a paper air sickness bag. That drawing became the blueprint for what would eventually become the Birkin.

The original model expanded on the Hermès Kelly, adding more room, open access, and practical compartments. Dumas delivered the finished piece a year later and asked for her blessing to name it in her honor.

Over the course of her life, Birkin received four of the signature bags. She accepted royalties from their use, which she reportedly donated to charity.

She first auctioned the original bag in 1994 to raise funds for AIDS research. Since then, it has appeared in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The most recent owner, identified by Sotheby’s as Catherine B., acquired it at auction in 2000.