Eiffel Tower piece sells for €500,000

A PIECE of the original staircase of the Eiffel Tower fetched €553,000 ten times its estimated price, in a Paris auction on Wednesday.

The 2.7m high chunk, the third of its kind sold in a year, went to private US buyer after a tense battle between him and another interested party who both placed bids by phone, said auctioneers at Sotheby's.

"What we are selling is a symbol," said Cecile Verdier of Sotheby's Paris.

"It's more than an object, it's a piece of Paris - of the Eiffel Tower - and that's the stuff of dreams."

The spiral section was part of the flight leading from the second to the third levels of the tower. It was scaled by Gustav Eiffel himself at the inauguration in 1889, when the lift was not yet in service.

Some descendents of Eiffel were present at Wednesday's auction.

Photo:Fabian Winiger