Photo: Courtesy of Jeff Koons
Hermès Birkin bags, customized by Jeff Koons, are going up for auction this weekend in New York as part of a fundraising initiative by Project Perpetual. These aren’t just any old Birkins—Sofia Coppola, Marc Jacobs, and Diane von Furstenberg all donated bags for the inaugural project by Project Perpetual, a new art philanthropy founded by Paris-based art collector Svetlana Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya.
And that’s not all. The one-of-a-kind bags are part of a bigger art project Koons is unveiling at the event, which benefits the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign advocating for vaccination worldwide. (Victoria Beckham, Natalie Massenet, Kate Moss, and Claudia Schiffer are among those from the fashion set who have participated in the global campaign.)
One of the works being auctioned is a life-sized sculpture he’s created (pictured), part of his Gazing Ball series, which will be officially unveiled on Sunday. Style.com has the exclusive scoop from Koons’ studio on the details of the other pieces.
“Jeff Koons has created eight unique wall sculptures that incorporate donated Hermès Birkin bags as ready-made objects on mirrors,” the Koons studio reports. “These new sculptures recall some of Koons’ earliest artworks that he made when he moved to New York as a young artist in the late ’70s and which were on view recently at his retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art.”
The sculpture and the individual bags will be auctioned by Simon de Pury on November 9 in New York, with all proceeds benefitting the United Nations Foundation.
