Birkin bag sells for $2.9m at Sotheby's Collectors Week in Abu Dhabi

The beach at St Regis Saadiyat Resort in Abu Dhabi was the unlikely venue for the final event of Sotheby's first-ever Collectors Week on Friday.

With a giant curved screen, a desk of phone bidders and the Guggenheim museum rising in the distance, it was clear this would be no ordinary auction.

Held outdoors – which, despite the safety of the UAE felt like a risky move in the wake of the recent Louvre gem robbery – it felt more like an upscale beach club than a venue where millions of dollars would soon be changing hands.

Staged as a three-day extravaganza of exhibitions, gemstones, F1 cars and a half-shredded Banksy artwork, these were just an amuse-bouche for the main event, the outdoor sale.

Staged in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Investment Office, this is Sotheby's grand entrance to the UAE capital, and had been envisioned as a show-stopping event. Taking place alongside the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the Middle East and Africa Summit 2025, Abu Dhabi Finance Week and Bitcoin Mena, it drew a global crowd.

The auction results

Lot 201 was Jane Birkin's personal Le Birkin Voyageur bag. One of just five bags gifted to her by the French house of Hermes – an act that kick-started the entire myth of the famous “Birkin Bag”- the singer personalised it, inscribing the interior with words and drawings, as well as her signature. The first of the five bags was sold by Sotheby's in Paris in July for $10.1 million, so interest was expected to be high.

Jane Birkin carrying her 'Traveller' Birkin. It sold at the inaugural Collectors Week Abu Dhabi in December. Photo: Sotheby's

Hosting the auction was Paul Redmayne, senior vice president of luxury sales at Sotheby's, who described the Birkin as a piece of fashion history. With a presale estimate of $220,000 to $440,000, after some spirited phone bidding, it sold for $2,856,000.

“This is really the beauty of auction,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby's global head of luxury handbags and fashion, explained. “When you have such provenance and an iconic piece we know, and we have seen it in July, the price can go high.

“This is just proof that when a bag has an impeccable story, we have collectors who would like to pay to add this beautiful piece to their collection.