‘Handbags as collectable as art’ after sale hits £162,000
HANDBAG investors are the new art collectors, a leading auction house has said, after a diamond-encrusted Hermès Birkin bag broke records as it sold for £162,000.
The decade-old crocodile skin Himalaya Birkin bag, which features an 18-carat white gold, diamond-encrusted lock, achieved the European record for a handbag sold at auction.
Rachel Koffsky, handbag and accessories specialist at Christie’s, told The Daily Telegraph that a growing demand for “wearable works of art” meant sales were rocketing.
She said: “Last year our handbag sales made £2million and this year it became almost £3million.
“For two years in a row, we have set the European record for the most valuable bag sold at auction.”
While many may balk at the idea of taking a bag worth more than £100,000 around the supermarket, the expert insisted the pieces were “wearable works of art” and encouraged her investors to use them.
“Women are now seeing their handbag collections as not only investment opportunities but as an extension of their personalities,” said Ms Koffsky.
“I encourage my collectors to use their bags because then you see how impeccable the craftsmanship is.”
According to Ms Koffsky, the handbag market was booming because of the death of the “it bag” following the recession. She explained: “Today’s savvy investors want to purchase a piece that will be iconic in the future.”
Jane Birkin, the singer who inspired the record-breaking handbag, told the BBC last year that she does not even use her Birkin bag anymore due to it being “very, very heavy”.
Ahandbag has just been sold for £162,000. It is enough to make Lady Bracknell exclaim all over again. Naturally, this was not any old handbag, but a 10-year-old Birkin Himalaya crocodile handbag. Crocodiles may not live in the Himalayas, but Hermès, the maker, explains the reference as descriptive of the white patch on the bag, resembling snowy peaks. The Birkin bit is of course breathy Jane Birkin, who was not skinned to make the bags, but in whose honour they were named. The funny thing is that the model, now a sensible septuagenarian, finds the bag too heavy to carry by the time it’s stuffed with this and that. So perhaps a handbag should be judged not as art but on its usefulness. One of Lady Thatcher’s fetched only £47,500 at auction, but a few metaphorical swipes of it saved Britain billions in EU rebates.