A riveting souvenir of the Eiffel Tower

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories

When it opened to the public in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the world – a feat of engineering, to be sure. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the monument has been celebrating its 130th anniversary by, erm, trying to flog ‘historic rivets’. Its managers at the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) have collaborated with museum retailers Arteum to forge just 600 rivets ‘made out of iron from the Eiffel Tower’. (What they have replaced it with is not specified.)

A ‘historic rivet’ from the Eiffel Tower – on sale for €525

Promoting the collaboration, the metal-bashers at the tower draw attention to the staggering 2.5 million rivets that were originally used in its construction – and the four riveters it took to heat-mount each of them in the late 1880s. Iron men indeed!

If you go nuts (sorry) about this sort of thing, the birthday bolt can be yours from the Eiffel Tower gift shop. For just €525.

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