Section of Eiffel Tower Staircase Sells for €450,000
A section of the original spiral staircase from the Eiffel Tower was sold at auction by Artcurial in Paris for around €450,000 ($523,000) on Thursday. A French collector purchased the nearly three-meter-high (about 9-foot-high) section of the Eiffel Tower staircase that dates back to 1889. The staircase consists of 14 steps and weighs 1.4 tons.
A nearly three-meter-tall segment of the Eiffel Tower's original spiral staircase sold at Artcurial in Paris for about €450,000 (roughly $523,000).
A French collector bought the 14-step section, which dates to 1889, weighs about 1.4 tons and had been estimated at €120,000–€150,000 before the sale.
The steps came from the spiral staircase that once linked the tower's second and third floors. In 1983, when an elevator was installed, the staircase was taken apart into 24 pieces of various sizes. Those fragments have since become sought-after collectors' items found around the world — some are displayed near New York's Statue of Liberty, others sit in the gardens of the Yoishii Foundation in Japan, and many remain in private collections.
Artcurial previously sold another 14-step portion in 2016 to an Asian buyer for about €524,000. The record price for a staircase section was set in 2008, when a US collector paid €553,000.
Sabrina Dolla, Art Deco design director at Artcurial Paris, said owning part of the tower is like owning a piece of Paris, with all the imagination and symbolism that entails. She also noted renewed interest in such pieces after the Paris 2024 Olympics, when the tower and other landmarks were highly visible during the Games.
Engineer Gustave Eiffel built the tower for the 1889 Paris World's Fair. The 324-meter structure is one of the world's leading tourist attractions and remains France's most visited site.