nobody can sit on it including the cat.
Gotta say good luck with that!
When we had cats, all the furniture, especially anything that was leather, got shredded. Given a choice between carpet covered cat scratch posts and leather, they chose leather.
Still, you can always set some deterrent on it. Tub of soapy water for a cat bath?
I'd have it behind a velvet museum rope-off.
Did you have to do much cleaning on the wood when received?