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Valuable spiral staircase in front of the Artcurial auction house
Photo: Stephane De Sakutin / AFP / dpa
The auction house did not expect such a high price: Part of an earlier spiral staircase in the Paris Eiffel Tower went under the hammer for almost 275,000 euros.
The auction house Artcurial announced on Tuesday in Paris that the estimated price of 30,000 to 40,000 euros was exceeded many times over.
The original part of the more than 130-year-old Parisian landmark will be in a European collection.
A spiral staircase that used to connect the second and third floors of the "dame de fer" (lady made of iron) was dismantled at the beginning of the 1980s and split into two dozen parts because of the construction of an elevator.
Most of the pieces went under the hammer in 1983.
According to Artcurial, the part of the staircase that has now been auctioned is about three meters high and comes from a Canadian private collection.
The price was exactly 274,475 euros including auction costs.
The 324 meter high Eiffel Tower not far from the Seine is usually visited by up to seven million people a year - but this year it is likely to be significantly fewer due to the corona crisis.
The monument was built for the Paris World's Fair and completed in 1889.
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bbr / dpa
