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London (dpa) - Name the woman who has changed career 94 times and her nationality 44 times, who has had 43 pets, including a chimpanzee and a giraffe, and who still looks 17 as her 50th birthday approaches.
Barbie is at home in 150 countries around the world, always slim and elegant. More than a billion articles of clothing and footwear have been produced in her name.
Around 4,000 different versions of the myth go under the hammer in London on Tuesday when Christie's offers a huge Barbie collection for sale.
"We are proud to be able to auction what is presumably the world's largest collection of Barbie dolls," a spokeswoman says.
The estimated sale value of 100,000 pounds (190,000 dollars) is a trifle compared with the Old Masters that the auction house regularly deals in, but on this occasion it's the fun that counts.
"We will experience a fascinating procession from the very first Barbie up to the special versions of famous designers," the spokeswoman says.
Since Ruth and Elliot Handler, founders of the Mattel toy firm, presented the first Barbie in New York in 1959, the doll has taken on the characteristics of a succession of famous society ladies.
On different occasions her outfits have recalled the clothes worn by Jackie Kennedy, Coco Chanel and Grace Kelly.
She has been the beautiful daughter of an African chief or a lovely Asian lady. Often enough Barbie has shown the way for others to follow. Paris Hilton is a living example.
In innumerable stories Barbie has been endowed with her own imaginary world and given trendsetting statements to utter.
But when Mattel tried a Teen Talk Barbie in 1992, many were disappointed. Barbie's first sentence as a talking doll was: "I love shopping!"
One of the key reasons for her success has been the way she can be dressed in the latest fashions.
"The doll sells fashion and fashion sells the doll," was one of Ruth Handler's sayings.
The idea arose when she was watching her daughter Barbara, who preferred playing with hew own homemade paper dolls that resembled adults rather than babies.
"The world needs a teenage doll," Handler realized.
There was considerable scepticism at the New York Toy Fair in 1959, but in the first year 351,000 Barbies were sold.
One of the first customers was a Dutch woman called Ietje Raebel, who bought one for her daughter. Marina Raebel initially showed little interest.
This turned out to be a piece of luck for her mother, a part-time fashion designer who bought every new version of the doll as it came onto the market. All of them are as new.
As a teenager, Marina became interested, and mother and daughter began dreaming of a private Barbie museum.
In 2002 Ietje Raebel died, and now it is her collection that is being auctioned - not as a whole but as individual pieces.
Some items, like the Japanese Barbie with styled black hair, is estimated at close to 1,300 dollars.
But the highest price is likely to be paid for Barbie Number One, with the famous ponytail and fringe.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
