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Crocodile skin Hermès Birkin bag sells for $185,000 at auction

Telegraph.co.uk | 2014 09. 24

The latest Hermès Birkin bag to go on auction has sold for $185,000 - that's the equivalent of about £113,000. Quite the fee for a handbag, even we have to admit.

However, this was no ordinary tote. The 30cm diamond matte Himalayan Nilo Crocodile Birkin bag features 18k white gold hardware and 242 diamonds with a total weight of 9.84 carats.

The auction catalogue described how the subtle colouration "evokes images of the Himalayan Mountains."

Before the auction took place, Kathleen Guzman, managing director at Heritage Auctions - where the bag was sold - explained to the Daily Mail why the handbag was so special, describing it as, "Probably the most desirable handbag in the world…This is the only time that a bag of this calibre has appeared on the luxury re-sale market. This is a dream piece for the collection of true Hermès aficionados."

Although both the seller and the buyer remain anonymous, a consignment director for Heritage Auctions, Max Brownawell, described to GMA News who the buyer might be: "A bag like this would likely be purchased by a woman who wants to make sure that she has a bag that is better than any other handbag in the room. She likely has a lot of other Birkins, maybe even some other diamond Birkins, but this is really going to be the jewel in her collection."

We'd love to speculate that it might be Victoria Beckham or Kim Kardashian - two of the Birkin bags' biggest fans. The former has a collection reportedly worth £1.5 million while the latter has so many, she even uses one as a gym bag. 

However, more likely, the purchaser is probably a collector who may not actually ever use the handbag, but simply keep it while it gains value over time. The Birkin bag, named after British actress Jane Birkin, is one of the most coveted items of fashion in the world and will most likely continue to become more and more valuable over the years, which is why it notoriously does extremely well at auctions.

In fact, this sale does not even break the record for the most expensive handbag to sell at auction; a Heritage Auction in Dallas in 2011, a Porosus diamond Birkin sold for $203,150.

The inspiration for the handbag, Jane Birkin, has also auctioned off many of her own for charity over the years, fetching £100,100 for the original and making £19,900 for another just last week.

The auction also sold off other Hermès bags, as well as styles by Chanel, Louis Vuitton and many others. All this is making us feel a lot less guilty about the It bags we're coveting this season, which cost just pocket change in comparison.