From the BBC, July 10:
The original Birkin bag, which set the template for arguably the most coveted accessory in fashion history, has been bought for €8.6m (£7.4m; $10.1m), becoming the most valuable handbag ever sold at auction.
The black leather bag was made for singer Jane Birkin in 1985 after she spilled her belongings while sitting next to the boss of luxury fashion house Hermès on a flight.
She asked why they didn't make bigger bags, so he sketched out the design for a new, more practical but still highly desirable item on the aeroplane's sick bag.
The prototype he made was sold to a private collector from Japan at Sotheby's in Paris on Thursday, far surpassing the €439,000 (£378,000; $513,000) previous record sale.
The auction house said there was an "electrifying" 10-minute bidding war between "nine determined collectors".
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby's global head of handbags and fashion, said the price was a "startling demonstration of the power of a legend and its capacity to ignite the passion and desire of collectors seeking exceptional items with unique provenance, to own its origin".
She added: "The Birkin prototype is exactly that, the starting point of an extraordinary story that has given us a modern icon, the Birkin bag, the most coveted handbag in the world."
The €8,582,500 total includes commission and fees. Sotheby's did not publish a pre-auction estimate....
....MUCH MORE
The various branches of the clan have made a lot of money from the bag.
"Luxury Heir Alleges His $13 Billion Hermès Fortune Has Vanished"
Have they checked the couch cushions? People say they sometimes find things behind the couch cushions....***
....Well this story has it all doesn't it. Except for the thirteen large, of course.
We happened to catch the gardener story in December: "Hermès heir wants to leave his fortune to his gardener"
And a quick mention as part of the one-line outro from June's "LVMH, The Arnault Family And An Olympics Like None Other" wherein Gentlemen's Quarterly referred to the Arnault family as "the world's richest family":
A quick note, despite being too lazy to look it up I'm pretty sure the Walton clan is ahead of the Arnault fam. on the net worth leader board. The branches of thethe Dumas, Guerrand and Puech