Cashing in over Chandigarh’s heritage furniture, the Wright Auction House based in Chicago fetched $138,750 (Rs 86,17,068). Amid controversies concerning auction of heritage furniture and other items belonging to the city, the auction house successfully held auction of French architect le Corbusier cousin’s Pierre Jeanneret designed furniture from Chandigarh.
Eight furniture items designed by Pierre Jeanneret were put under the hammer, out of which six lots of furniture fetched $ 138,750 during the auction held on December 12 The USA-based Wright Auction House auctioned two pairs of committee armchairs from the Punjab and Haryana Vidhan Sabha, a desk from the College of Architecture, an executive desk from Administrative building, a file rack and a folding screen.
A set of two armchairs from Punjab and Haryana Vidhan Sabha were auctioned at $ 40,000 while the estimated price for the same was between $25,000-30,000. Another pair of armchairs from the Assembly fetched $37,500. An executive desk from Administrative building was sold at $15000 while the estimated price was $10000-15000.
A desk from Chandigarh College of Architecture was auctioned at $7,500 and a folding screen from Administrative building was sold at $22,500. A file rack was auctioned at Rs 16,250 while the estimated price was $10000-15000. The set of six chairs from Central library of Panjab University (estimate: $8,000-10,000) and a desk from administrative buildings, Chandigarh (estimate: $7,000-9,000) went unsold during the auction.
le Corbusier’s cousin Pierre Jeanneret had designed chairs, tables, stools and racks for government offices in the late 50s here. This is not the first time that an auction houses based abroad has conducted an auction of Chandigarh’s heritage furniture. The UT Administration’s efforts to stop auctions of city’s heritage items has miserably failed as the foreign based auction houses continued to put under the hammer heritage items belonging to the city in last few years.
Even during last year, renowned foreign auction houses in Paris and london had shoveled in millions through the auction of city’s heritage items. The creative work while designing, developing and planning of the city by senior architects are of high heritage and commercial value and are being sold for millions in international auction houses.
Waking up to the damage already done, the UT Administration had earlier directed all the UT Departments and representatives from Punjab and Haryana departments to make two separate heritage inventories. One inventory of the heritage items in use and other about the details of heritage items being sold out by the respective department till now was prepared.
The Administration had also asked all the Departments not to discard the heritage furniture and preserve the same to ensure that no such auctions of city’s heritage items are being held in the future. Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had sent a communiqué to the Administration asking the latter to initiate work to implement the recommendations for preservation of heritage items of Chandigarh. Acknowledging the Administration’s recommendations on preserving the heritage items, the MHA had also asked the higher authorities to take assistance of experts of Archeology Survey of India (ASI) for the said purpose.