Main image via PlanetWare
Some people collect cars, some people collect stamps, and other people… collect pieces of the Eiffel Tower.
In case you're wondering, we're talking about the actual Eiffel Tower in Paris, not any other knock off. And yes, someone did a buy a piece of it, an original piece that's no longer in use of course.
via GIPHY
At a recent auction, a section of stairs from the Eiffel Tower sold for €169,000 (RM806,000), around three times the pre-sale estimate!
Over two dozen wrought-iron steps from the original spiral structure, from between the second and third floors of the tower were sold to a Middle Eastern collector after a bidding-war in Paris.
Image via The Jakarta Post
The auction house, Artcurial, originally estimated that the staircase would be sold for €40,000 (RM190,782) and €60,000 (RM286,149) . They did not expect the piece to sell for almost three times more than the expected price!
The stairs stand at 4.3 metres high and were previously part of a private Canadian collection. The staircase dates back to 1889 when legendary French engineer, Gustave Eiffel, built the 324-metre as the centrepiece of the Paris Universal Exhibition.
Image via Mashable
This staircase was removed from the Eiffel Tower in 1983 to make way for a lift to be put in place. The entire staircase was cut into 24 sections which range from two to nine metres high. Several pieces have been bought by museums or have ended up as historic installations in prestigious sites around the world.
Image via Mashable
Back in 2016, the auction house sold another part of the tower - that consisted of 14 steps, for €523,800 (RM2.5 million) to an Asian buyer!
Wow. If you had that kind of money, what would you start collecting?
Info via The Local Fr
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