Man who spent years building Eiffel Tower with 700K matchsticks may be denied world record for using wrong matches
You could say Richard Plaud's dreams of making the world's tallest matchstick sculpture may have gone up in smoke.
LONDON — You could say Richard Plaud's dreams of making the world's tallest matchstick sculpture may have gone up in smoke.
The Frenchman spent the last eight years painstakingly piecing together 706,900 matchsticks to make a 23.6-foot model of the Eiffel Tower, easily beating the existing record by 2 feet.
But, he says, last week the Guinness Book of World Records had bad news for him: He used the wrong type of matchsticks to qualify for a record — because they weren't commercially available.
"The Guinness Book judges have delivered their verdict, without actually seeing my tower in real life," he wrote on Facebook.
Plaud, a council worker for a local authority, said Guinness told him the matches must be available commercially and can't be cut, disassembled or distorted beyond recognition.
Rating: 5