Million-euro handbag heists in Paris show how gangs are now targeting luxury leather goods

A series of million-euro robberies of luxury handbags from boutiques and brand headquarters in Paris has shown that high-value leather goods are now a bigger target for organised criminals than jewels or cash, as French police pursue sophisticated gangs targeting designer bags.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Paris has been the scene of several high-profile robberies of handbags over the past year, fuelled by the growing global demand for designer leather goods, which are increasingly being displayed by influencers on social media. As handbags sell for record prices at auction - the late singer Jane Birkin's Hermès bag fetched €8.6m (£7.4m) this summer - prices are rising in boutiques and secondhand bags are gaining value as collectors' items.

Jérôme Lalande, an expert on leather goods at the Paris appeals court, said demand for designer handbags was so high that the secondhand market was flourishing, making bags very easy to sell on. "There's a lot of money to be made," he said. "Handbags have come to represent social status."

Last month, the Paris showroom of Houlux, a broker of secondhand designer bags that sells by appointment only, was robbed in a dawn raid. Burglars climbed up to a fourth-floor balcony and in less than 20 minutes took more than 100 luxury bags by brands including Hermès, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, estimated to be worth a total of €1m.

A few days later, the offices of the luxury brand Louis Vuitton in central Paris were broken into shortly after midnight by two masked men who broke down an inside door and took a large number of bags, reported to have been worth more than €1m.