Who owns the Eiffel Tower?
The Eiffel Tower belongs to the City of Paris. The city grants a concession to operate the tower to the Société Nouvelle d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (New Eiffel Tower Operating Company), which is a subsidiary of Crédit Foncier, a large French bank. This company just runs and maintains the Tower; it does not own it. The concession is periodically renewed, although the city reserves the right to give the concession to someone else if it so chooses (it has not so chosen recently). Some years ago, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, then a division of General Motors, and in conjunction with the Bass brothers in Texas, was considering buying about 70 percent interest in Crédit Foncier. This gave rise to a persistent and incorrect rumor that the Eiffel Tower had been or was going to be sold to Americans. This never came to pass; the tower is still 100% French.
