The piece? Only 14 rust-coloured steps, arranged in a spiral. Yet this section of staircase was knocked down for €450,160 on Thursday 21 May at an auction at the Artcurial auction house. And with good reason: these 14 steps once formed part of the 1,665 that run up the Eiffel Tower.
This 2.75-metre-high segment of the Iron Lady came from the helical staircase that linked the second and third floors of the tower when it was inaugurated in 1889. During renovation work on the monument in 1983, when lifts were installed, the staircase was dismantled and cut into 24 sections.
Few of these sections "have remained in France and been kept by their original buyers", according to Artcurial.
The appearance on the market of this example, from a private collection where it spent 40 years, is unusual enough for the 14 steps to be given a starting estimate of between €120,000 and €150,000.
Despite its final price tag of €450,160, this Eiffel Tower staircase section is still a long way off the record. In 2016, a similar section offered by the Sotheby's auction house went for €523,800.
Beyond the fact that buyers can boast of owning a fragment of one of Paris's symbols, this purchase also places their collection in a very exclusive and prestigious circle of sites and collections that display a piece of the Iron Lady's staircase.
Sections have been installed, among other places, in the gardens of the Yoishii Foundation in Yamanashi, Japan, another near the Statue of Liberty in New York, and another at Disneyland.
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