Heritage furniture worth Rs 50 lakh to go under hammer at US auction house on September 10

The list of furniture include two round stools, pair of architect stools, six armchairs, pair of office armchair, one each library chair, office table desk-bookcase and student desk.

Since 2007, there has been a spate of auctions of heritage furniture of Chandigarh designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in various countries despite attempts made by the Chandigarh administration to stop such auctions.

As many as four heritage items, furniture designed Le Corbusier were auctioned for Rs 1 crore at a New York-based auction house on June 10. On December 1, furniture items designed by Pierre Jeanneret were sold for Rs 2.97 crore at a Paris-based auction house. On November 25, furniture sourced from Panjab University, the high court and the Chandigarh administration was sold at Berlin auction for Rs 7 lakh. Prior to that, furniture designed by Pierre Jeanneret was auctioned for over Rs 5 crore in a Chicago-based auction house on October 29.

These heritage items were purchased by dealers, mostly foreign nationals, at throwaway prices and they later auctioned them at high prices.

After facing criticism for failure to check auction of heritage items, the administration had prepared an inventory of the heritage items that are still present in Chandigarh to ensure that heritage items are not sold.

City-based social activist Ajay Jagga, who has been taking up the issue with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has again written to stop the auction and investigation the matter.

Jagga said: “Apart from the visas of foreign buyers, it has to be found as to why the heritage items were/are sold as junk or scrap, causing huge loss to the Government.”