It’s in the bag: world’s priciest handbag comes to London - but what does it cost to insure?

With the world’s most expensive handbag, the Mouawad 1001 Nights Diamond Purse, coming to London this week, MoneySuperMarket today reveals it’s not just the purchase price of £3 million that potential buyers need to budget for.

Kevin Pratt, consumer affairs expert at MoneySuperMarket, highlights just how much the one-of-a-kind bag will cost the lucky new owner to insure: “Contents insurance premiums for an expensive item are usually set at around 2% of its value, so you’d be looking at approximately £60,000 a year.

“In most cases, a standard home contents policy can be used to protect valuables including jewellery, antiques, collections and works of art. You’ll just be asked to specify what you’re insuring when you get your quotation. It’s worth noting however, that contents insurers usually impose a limit on the value of any particular item they’ll cover – you’d be lucky to find one that went beyond £30,000 per piece, at which point you’d need to start thinking about specialist cover. The Mouawad 1001 Nights Diamond Purse would probably need a specialist contract drawn up at Lloyd’s of London.”

With over 15 million handbags bought in the UK every year, MoneySuperMarket has sifted through thousands of its home insurance quotes to reveal the luxury handbags that Brits choose to insure – revealing Chanel is the label we’re most likely to protect, followed by Italian label Gucci and British-born Mulberry:

The handbags we’re most likely to insure & their average insurance value:

1. Chanel - £3,235

2. Gucci - £1,887

3. Mulberry - £1,418

4. Dior - £2,521

5. Louis Vuitton – £2,085

6. Hermes - £3,810

7. Prada - £1,683

8. Chloe - £2,987

9. Celine - £1,935