A Piece of the Eiffel Tower Is Heading to Auction and It Could Be Yours
Most people return from Paris with a miniature iron replica, a beret they’ll never wear again, or at least a tin of fancy cookies. But for those with deeper pockets and a serious obsession with French history, a far more extraordinary souvenir is about to become available. A genuine section of the Eiffel Tower’s original spiral staircase is going up for auction on May 21, giving one very lucky bidder the chance to own a slice of one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.
The Eiffel Tower was built in the 1880s in preparation for the 1889 World’s Fair, designed by French engineer Gustave Eiffel. The structure originally featured three main floors connected by staircases, since elevators were not yet part of the design. The climb to the third floor, where Eiffel famously kept his private office, required navigating a dramatic set of spiral staircases that wound their way between the second and third levels. For nearly a century, those staircases remained an integral part of the tower’s architecture before the decision was made to modernize the experience.
In 1983, the spiral staircases linking the second and third floors were removed from the structure entirely and cut into 24 individual segments. Elevators were installed in their place, and most of the pieces were sold at auction. Today, one segment remains on the tower’s first floor as a display, while others found homes at the Musee d’Orsay, La Villette, and the Iron History Museum in Jarville-la-Malgrange. Still others traveled far from Paris, landing in places as unexpected as Disneyland and the Yoishii Foundation gardens in Japan. The piece now heading to auction has been privately held for more than four decades.
The anonymous seller, who acquired the 8.5-foot section over 40 years ago, has decided it is finally time to part with it. French auction house Artcurial will be handling the sale, with the event scheduled for May 21. According to artnet, the segment is expected to fetch up to around $54,000, though given the history of previous sales, that figure could climb considerably higher once serious bidders enter the room.
This will actually be the fifth time Artcurial has brought one of these staircase segments to auction since 2013. That first sale saw a 19-step piece go for approximately $229,000 at the time, but the most dramatic result came in 2016, when an 8.5-foot segment nearly identical to the one now on offer sparked an intense bidding war and ultimately sold for close to $567,000. The appetite for these pieces has proven remarkably consistent among collectors, and there is little reason to think this upcoming auction will be any different.
For anyone who has ever stood at the base of the Eiffel Tower and craned their neck upward in awe, the idea of owning a literal piece of that structure is something difficult to put into rational terms. It is not just a large chunk of iron. It is a fragment of a building that has stood as a symbol of human ambition, engineering ingenuity, and Parisian romance since the nineteenth century. The fact that only a small number of these segments exist in private hands makes each one genuinely rare in the truest sense of the word.
Whether it ends up in a billionaire’s living room, a corporate lobby, or some eccentric collector’s dedicated Eiffel Tower shrine, the piece is bound to spark conversation wherever it lands. Artcurial has established itself as the go-to house for this particular category of extraordinary memorabilia, and May 21 promises to be a lively event for anyone following the world of architectural collectibles.
The Eiffel Tower attracts around seven million visitors every year, making it one of the most visited paid monuments on the planet. When it was first unveiled in 1889, many Parisians famously despised it and called for its demolition once the World’s Fair ended. Gustave Eiffel himself used the tower’s third-floor apartment to conduct weather experiments and host scientists including Thomas Edison, treating it as a working laboratory rather than just a tourist attraction.
If the idea of owning a piece of the Eiffel Tower appeals to you, share your thoughts in the comments.
