Got some extra cash saved up? Not sure what to do with it? Well, instead of buying a Playstation 5 or a pair of sneakers from Lidl, we recommend you get yourself... a piece of the Eiffel Tower. Yeah, you read that right! Here's what you need to know.
Discover our latest podcast
Have a piece of Paris in your living room
On December 1st, Artcurial is hosting an auction unlike any other that will grant potential buyers the opportunity to acquire a piece of the famous Parisian monument. And not just any! In fact, the piece they're auctioning off is none other than the Eiffel Tower's original staircase, which was built in 1889. The portion of the spiral staircase that's up for sale is 2.6 meters high. It's more than a hundred years old and was taken out in 1983 and purchased by a Canadian entrepreneur the same year.
£26,000 for a piece of history
But where does this part come from? And why was it taken out? Sabrina Dolla, the art-deco sales expert at Artcurial, explained to Le Parisien:
That year, the Eiffel Tower's operating company decided to lighten the structure and set up an elevator between the second and third floors. This resulted in the removal of the 160 m high spiral staircase people used to climb the tower. It was cut into 24 sections. Twenty of them were sold at auctions. Our client, a lover of France, had placed it in front of the headquarters of his company. Now that he's liquidating his company, he's decided to resell it.
FYI, four sections of this staircase remain at the Eiffel Tower, while others can be found all over the world. It's not the first time we're seeing this kind of auction, either. In 2013, a similar section of the Eiffel Tower was sold... for close to £200,000! Even better, in 2016, another section sold for nearly £470,000. Finally, in 2018, a lucky buyer snagged another section for £ 157,571. How much do you think this one will go for? 'It'll go for about £26,000 and £36,000, an intentionally attractive price,' Sabrina Dolla admitted. So who wants in?
