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Tuesday, October 7, 2025 |
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Auction houses come in for a handbagging |
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An employee holding a 129,000 USD crocodile Hermes Birkin Bag during a private opening for the new Hermes store on Wall Street in New York. At the end of May 2013, French auction house 'ArtCurial' claimed "a world record" after selling a Hermes Birkin Bag for 63,800 US Dollars, but American auction house 'Heritage' was quick to contest their so-called 'record'. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY.
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PARIS (AFP).- Two rival auction houses have clashed over which one may have set the record for the sale of a crocodile-skin Birkin handbag by the luxury goods firm Hermes.
Paris auction house Artcurial said last month it had sold a red, orange and pink coloured bag, named after the British-born French actress and singer Jane Birkin, for a record $82,600 (63,800 euros) on May 21.
But US auctioneers Heritage Auctions disputed the record, saying they sold a red Birkin bag in the US in December 2011 for $203,150, although the claim was quickly disputed by Artcurial which pointed out that the clasp was encrusted with a diamond, meaning it was not a like with like comparison.
Heritage countered that it had also sold a grey Birkin bag in April with a "palladium" clasp for $86,500 and others with unspecified variations for $113,525, $104,500 and $95,600.
Perhaps the record was in fact set by another bag sold in 2007, according to media reports, for $96,723.
But that too had a distinguishing feature -- it was owned by Jane Birkin.
© 1994-2013 Agence France-Presse
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