Vintage Hermès Birkin becomes the most expensive auctioned handbag ever at £162,500

This secondhand diamond-encrusted Birkin has just been sold for a record-breaking £162,500 – making it the most expensive handbag to ever be sold at auction in Europe.

The decade-old bag, which is in pristine condition, went under the hammer at Christie’s on Tuesday.

Obviously, this is no ordinary Hermès Birkin (although those are pricey enough). This is a Himalaya Hermès Birkin bag which features an 18-carat, white gold, diamond-encrusted lock.

Back in 2006, a blue version sold for £100,000 at the same auction but this nude Nile crocodile skin has fetched far more.

Himalayan refers to the bag’s colour, which is supposed to resemble the snow covered mountain range, while Birkin is a reference ot the singer and actor Jane Birkin, who met the chief executive of Hermès on a flight from Paris to London. It was during that journey that he offered to design a holdall for her and name it after her.

Today, everyone who’s anyone carries a Himalayan Birkin – from Victoria Beckham to Kim Kardashian. Because of that, the waiting lists to get one are often ridiculously long.

And, of course, these bags have now attracted the attention of art collectors; Kelly and Birkin bags now apparently account for around 90% of the crocodile-skin bag auction market.

This £162,500 number may be the most expensive bag in Europe, but it hasn’t managed to topple the record made last year in Hong Kong, which saw a Bikin go for £253,000.

That was, Christie’s said, the ‘undisputed most valuable bag in the world’.