Section of Eiffel Tower staircase fetches over $667,000 at auction
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A portion of the original staircase of the Eiffel Tower on display during a press preview in Paris on May 13 ahead of its upcoming auction.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – A spiral segment of the Eiffel Tower’s original staircase sold for more than €450,000 (S$667,800) at auction in Paris on May 21.
The buyer, who was in the auction room, became the owner of a 14-step section of staircase that stands 2.7m (9 feet) tall, weighs 1.4 tonnes and dates back to 1889, the year the monument that towers over central Paris was completed.
“When you buy a piece of the Eiffel Tower, you’re buying a piece of Paris, along with all the imagination and symbolism it represents,” said Ms Sabrina Dolla, Art Deco design director at Artcurial Paris auction house where the sale took place.
More than four decades ago, a total of 160m of staircase were cut into smaller sections and sold, replaced by elevators which now carry visitors to the Eiffel Tower’s highest viewing platform.
The section auctioned on May 21 fetched €450,160, three times the upper range of its pre-sale estimated value of between €120,000 and €150,000.
In 2008 one section sold to a private American buyer for a record of €550,000. Other pieces of Eiffel Tower staircase, ranging from 2.7m to 9.1m, are housed at prestigious venues around the globe.
Portions are preserved near the Statue of Liberty in New York, in the gardens of the Yoshi Foundation in Yamanashi, Japan, as well as in private foreign collections.
Ms Dolla said the Paris 2024 Olympics, which saw landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde and the Grand Palais take centre stage at the games, had boosted the tower’s appeal among collectors.
“We’re definitely seeing a renewed interest in what it symbolises and in its aesthetic appeal,” she added. REUTERS
