Jane Birkin’s Actual Hermès Bag Will Be Auctioned to Fund Future Foundation

If you’ve ever wanted the famously exclusive Hermès Birkin bag, now’s your chance. On December 15, a Birkin 35 in black box calf leather with gold metal trim will be auctioned off by Orne Enchères at Hôtel Drouot in Paris.

A status symbol featured on everything from Sex and the City to Real Housewives, the Birkin bag is named after late actor and singer Jane Birkin, who died on July 16, 2023. The specific bag being auctioned belonged to Birkin, who later gave it to her best friend, photographer Gabrielle Crawford. Crawford will donate the proceeds to help finance the “future Jane Birkin Foundation.” The bag is estimated to go for as much 100,000 to 120,000 euros.

“It is in homage to this friendship, to the hectic adventure that was their life together, that Gabrielle has decided to entrust these souvenirs to the auction in order to continue Jane’s philanthropic battles and to create a foundation in her name,” reads a statement from Orne Enchères.

According to the press release, the Birkin 35 in black box calf leather was “one of the first bags offered by Hermès” to Birkin. According to Crawford, Birkin used this bag every day for years and it “became a sort of mobile warehouse.”

“Gifts from all over the world hung from the handles—bells, Japanese lucky charms,” the press release continues. “It weighed a ton. But she and it were inseparable. She never forgot it.” Eventually, Birkin gave it to Crawford, her best friend of nearly six decades.

Crawford and Birkin met in 1964, at a photo shoot for the Daily Mail’s 1965 “Girls to Watch” promotion. “My friendship with Jane was unique and irreplaceable,” Crawford told Paris Match last year. “A true friend gives you self-confidence. We played that role for each other for 58 years…. She said I was her antidote to disaster.” Crawford wrote a 2024 biography of Birkin, C’est Jane, Birkin Jane.