When the Olympic torch arrived in Paris last month ahead of the games, it appeared on the Champs Elysées exactly as one sponsor, LVMH, had decreed: in its own, custom-made trunk, designed by Mathieu Lehanneur and made by Louis Vuitton in a signature checkerboard canvas.
Indeed, cases are so synonymous with the luxury brand that the hoardings concealing the makeover of its boutique on the same street are configured to resemble one, and it continues to riff on a design first launched more than 160 years ago.
It’s a sign of the enduring appeal of luxury suitcases — items that have gone from functional to decorative objects whose purpose now rests less in their practical application than as something to admire and display. Notable collectors include former footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović and the rapper Tyler the Creator, whose portfolio ranges from Goyard and Gucci to Globetrotter.
In fact, vintage luggage has become so collectible that standalone trunk-selling auctions are now a fixture of the major houses’ calendars. In June, Christie’s held a sale where the 90 or so lots were estimated to fetch between €1mn-€2mn; in the event they made €2.4mn (£2.06mn) — the priciest of all, a 1925 wardrobe trunk, sold for €189,000.
That estimate-busting sale isn’t an outlier. In December, Christie’s sold a rare diamond-patterned Louis Vuitton trunk, which was estimated at $10,000-$15,000 but fetched $44,000. The last time this same model, a rarity, was offered by Christie’s was in 2002. Back then, experts put its mid-estimation value at £1,500 (about £2,700 in today’s money). Under the gavel, it managed £1,410.
But is there really an investment case for antique luxury luggage? After all, fetching six figures at the gavel doesn’t guarantee an item has value beyond whomever was in the room at the time.
The entire Christie’s sale was consigned by a single collector: Magnus Malm, a sixtysomething Swedish property developer who stumbled into his passion after buying a single trunk — in his case, a vintage Vuitton — 15 years ago.
“I started to buy one more and one more, and soon I had 15 in my homes,” he says. “They have such an interesting history — travelling by train or plane, maybe in the tropics, but we can’t know exactly what they have been used for.”
Malm was particularly smitten by metal trunks, made for hotter climes where standard materials were at risk from termites, often out of zinc or copper. These are more expensive, and far rarer, and he was thrilled to find a pair owned by Sven Staudenmaier, a paper dealer in northern Germany. Staudenmaier, though, refused to sell just those two trunks, and insisted that Malm buy in bulk, so he paid almost €4mn for 152 pieces, just to secure them. “I wasn’t in need of so many trunks,” Malm says now, with Nordic deadpan.
So he repurposed the surfeit into a travelling exhibition, Legendary Trunks. After appearing in Amsterdam and Sweden, he decided to sell some duplicates in the collection so struck that deal with Christie’s, selling about a quarter of his holdings. He retained those two prized metal trunks.
Malm has still not managed to source the ultimate piece, though: an aluminium Vuitton trunk, of which probably fewer than 10 were ever made. “It was more expensive than gold at that time, and I’ve only seen one, at another collector’s house in Paris,” he says. “He wouldn’t sell it to me. Trust me, I’ve asked him 500 times.”
Rachel Koffsky, international head of handbags and accessories at Christie’s, understands his eagerness. “That was more than just a functional object. It was an extreme piece of luxury that looks like a sculpture,” she says.
Vuitton remains the prime collectors’ marque in the market, regardless of material, says Koffsky, largely because Vuitton invented the trunk as we know it. It was his innovation to flatten the top for the first time (allowing stackability), but he also invented a waterproof canvas that meant such flat surfaces could withstand the weather. The final flourish was his creation of a supposedly unpickable lock. Goyard and Hermès also made trunks, but these are less in demand, says Koffsky.
The value of these vintage pieces is directly connected with size and condition — larger trunks, or special orders, will command a premium, as do trunks which retain original detailing such as leather handles or the ribbons on the lid’s interior which were more prone to damage. “It’s not significant if it isn’t lockable, but that’s a nice-to-have,” she says of misplaced keys.
Then again, you could probably pick up a key or two from Churchill Barton, the Maine-based dealer and restorer who runs Bretton’s Village Trunk Shop. He’s been buying, fixing and dealing for 30 years, using techniques such as finishing with tung oil, the naturally resinous sap that renders wood or leather waterproof but breathable or clinch nailing, which flattens them to prevent snagging.
Barton says that the trio of French makers is the most in-demand, with prices between $20,000-$40,000; Vuitton is at the upper end. Barton is also fond of Shwayder trunks, made stateside by the company that would eventually become Samsonite.
“We had a customer bring us a trunk about two weeks ago that he’d never been able to get open, but we had a key here that opened it. We found a Goyard label inside, and I told him ‘You can switch to a better brand of vodka’ now.”
Anyone looking for returns in the trunk market should be careful. As with a lot of collectibles, sales are relatively rare, making data patchy and accurate pricing difficult. There’s also a lot of emotion involved, with collectors’ own tastes affecting valuation. Prices can seesaw with the fashion: while some record auction prices for luxury trunks have been achieved recently, prices of unbranded vintage trunks have softened since 2020, when locked-down buyers snapped them up during home redecorations as coffee tables and similar: an item offered now for $1,200 would have fetched double four years ago, says Barton. These are less investment opportunities than simple collectibles.
Alsace-based Jean-Philippe Rolland is Barton’s European counterpart, and the foremost restorer and dealer on the continent via his company La Malle en Coin: he has around 300 cases for sale at any one time, while his personal haul sits at 500. That personal collection differs from Malm’s in that it includes several brand names beyond Vuitton; Rolland dismisses Hermès and instead trumpets the quality of Moynat’s trunks. “A collector buys either for the history and decoration, or for investment, and it isn’t the same budget,” he says, “You can have a lot of fun with €500, but for investment, you start at €5,000 and there’s no real limit.”
Indeed, that would have bought a fine condition first-series Louis Vuitton Classic case 15 years ago, Rolland says, back in the same era when Christie’s was selling those trunks at or near estimate. “Currently, it costs €20,000 — if you are lucky enough to find it.”
Proceed with caution, too, when provenance is touted as a price booster, warns Malm. “If you’re told this trunk was owned by, let’s say, Greta Garbo because it has the GG initials, it’s very hard to get information. You ask Vuitton and the most common answer is that they don’t tell. So it could have been owned by anyone with those initials. Don’t pay extra for provenance.”
Trunk collectors note that there’s one thing you’ll need more than deep pockets: plenty of space, since these are bulky items (Barton stores his archive in a New England dairy barn).
Whatever the prices, though, collectors note that vintage cases remain far cheaper than brand new ones — despite in some cases being of far lesser quality. “It surprises me that a new trunk is more than double an antique one. I can’t understand that,” says Malm.
Rolland is more matter of fact, pointing to the price inflation of new models. “A new trunk at Vuitton was worth around €18,000 before Covid. It’s currently at €48,000 in the catalogue,” he notes. “But the new one is much less beautiful than the old one: no patina, a printed canvas which is no longer made by hand, the corners are often made of lozine [vulcanised paper] not leather. One day, we think, that means the old will sell for more than the new.”
