Would you pay a hefty sum for something your eyes can barely see, if at all?
For one affluent buyer, they would—and even paid over $63,000 for it at an online auction.
Measuring only 657 by 222 by 700 microns (less than 0.03 inches wide), the literal microscopic handbag is perhaps the most expensive item bought by a man that the naked eye could not see.
It might seem easy to suspect that the item’s value is derived from the fact that it was based on a particular Louis Vuitton product. But the luxury brand is in no way associated with the tiny yellowish-green bag, despite the notion. Instead, the item in question is made by MSCHF, an art collective based in New York.
Aptly called the “Microscopic Handbag,” Brooklyn-based group MSHCF described the bag as “narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle” and at a size substantially, though subjectively, “smaller than a grain of sea salt”.
Impossible to be crafted by hand, the minuscule item was, in reality, a product of a special kind of 3D printing aimed at making micro-scale plastic parts, called two-photon polymerization.
Selling alongside the Microscopic Handbag is also a microscope which comes equipped with a digital display where the item can be viewed.
Through a promotional video, details on the item were given light which shows the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram “LV” ascribed to it, as well as the overall impression as to where the muse came from—presumably, the LV OnTheGo tote, which comes with a price tag of somewhere between $3,100 and $4,300.
Source: CNN