PARIS – A 14-step chunk of the Eiffel Tower’s spiral staircase was sold for 274,475 euros ($328,427) in Paris on Tuesday, nearly 10 times the guide price, auction house Artcurial said.

The nearly-three-metre-high artefact was part of the original 1889 staircase that connected the second and third floors of the monument for nearly a century before a lift was installed in 1983.