Someone just bought a piece of Eiffel Tower! Yes, a spiral staircase of Paris' Eiffel Tower was sold for 170,000 Euros (approx Rs 1.36 crore) at an auction on Tuesday. The deal amount was three times what the staircase was expected to fetch. The piece of stairs became useless after it was replaced by elevators in 1983. The spiral stairway was a part of the link between second and third levels on the structure.

Before the auction at Artcurial, the staircase was kept on public display at the Hôtel Marcel Dassault on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, Italy. The starting bid was USD 45,000 (approx Rs 31.8 lakh). This is the third time Artcurial auctioned off Eiffel Tower's staircase. AI Painting 'Portrait of Edmond Bellamy' Sells for Rs 3.2 Crore at New York Auction!

Other sections of the original staircase are at two Paris museums - the Musée d'Orsay and the Cité des sciences. There's also a section in eastern France, at the Musée de l'Histoire du Fer. A section of the Eiffel steps is also on display in the Yoishii Foundation gardens in Yamanashi in Japan and another near the Statue of Liberty in New York. The two previous sections of the staircase were sold at auction for USD 248,342 (approx Rs 1.75 crore) in 2013 and USD 590,376 (approx Rs 4.18 crore) in 2016.

Here is the age-old spiral staircase that was a part of Eiffel Tower!

The stairs stand at 4.3 metres high and date back to 1889. French engineer Gustave Eiffel built the stairs as the centrepiece of the Paris Universal Exhibition. After they were removed making way for lifts, different parts of the staircase were bought by museums from around the world or ended up as historic installations at various sites. They were cut into 24 sections, ranging from two to nine metres high.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2018 11:48 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).