[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/eiffel-tower-stairs.png?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThere was a time when monuments were meant to be visited; now, it seems, they can be owned\u2014at least in parts.<\/p>\n
\n\tA section of the original staircase from the\u00a0Eiffel Tower\u00a0will go up for auction in Paris on May 21,\u00a0CNN\u00a0<\/em>reported,\u00a0<\/em>offering collectors the chance to take home a fragment of one of the world\u2019s most recognizable tourist attractions. Aspiring bidders will need more than just deep pockets\u2014the estimate is set at $140,000-$175,000\u2014they\u2019ll also need deep real estate. The piece stands nearly nine-feet-tall and spans more than five feet across.<\/p>\n \n\tThe lot, handled by\u00a0Artcurial, comprises 14 steps from the spiral staircase that once linked the tower\u2019s second and third levels. Installed for the monument\u2019s debut at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, the staircase carried visitors skyward for nearly a century before being dismantled in 1983, when elevators replaced the climb.<\/p>\n \n\tRoughly 20 sections were removed at the time, many of which entered private hands. This example, according to the auction house, has remained in the same collection for more than four decades and was recently restored ahead of the sale.<\/p>\n \n\tIf the pitch sounds a little grand\u2014\u201ca journey through time,\u201d as one specialist put it\u2014the market has already shown it is willing to indulge. In 2016, another staircase segment sold for $612,000, driven in part by aggressive bidding from a new collector.<\/p>\n \n\tPieces of the tower are now scattered globally, from Paris institutions like the\u00a0Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay\u00a0to installations abroad, including one near the\u00a0Statue of Liberty. The dispersal has turned what was once a singular feat of engineering into a kind of collectible series.<\/p>\n \n\tStill, the appeal is easy to understand. Around 7 million people visit the Eiffel Tower each year, joining an estimated 300 million who have made the trip since it opened. Owning a piece of it offers something slightly different: not the experience of ascent, but the illusion of having arrived.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd, in a market increasingly comfortable selling wares from\u00a0dinosaur skeletons\u00a0to space memorabilia, a staircase\u2014however historic\u2014feels almost modest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/eiffel-tower-staircase-auction-artcurial-paris-1234780764\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/eiffel-tower-stairs.png?w=1024″] There was a time when monuments were meant to be visited; now, it seems, they can be owned\u2014at least in parts. A section of the original staircase from the\u00a0Eiffel Tower\u00a0will go up for auction in Paris on May 21,\u00a0CNN\u00a0reported,\u00a0offering collectors the chance to take home a fragment of one of the world\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1874704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1874704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1874704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1874704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1874704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}