Now, Pierre Jeanneret’s letter to go under hammer in Spain

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 5

For the first time, a rare letter written by Pierre Jeanneret, a Swiss architect who collaborated with Le Corbusier in designing the City Beautiful, is being auctioned in Spain on October 30.

Though heritage furniture created and designed by Jeanneret have been auctioned abroad a number of times, a letter written by him going under the hammer is a rarity. Jeanneret wrote the letter from Chandigarh on July 18, 1964, in his capacity as the Chief Architect and Town Planning Adviser of the city. Jeanneret was the first Chief Architect of Chandigarh.

The letter, a copy of which was sent to Anthony Krafit, a journalist in Switzerland, sought rectification of a mistake in an article of Santosh Ghosh, which was published from Switzerland in French language. Ghosh had mentioned in the article that a building, ‘Gandhi Bhawan’’ at Chandigarh, has been designed by BP Mathur. Jeanneret wrote: “In fact, the building has been designed by me”. The letter was written to Ghosh with an address of Calcutta.

The letter, which was sent to Switzerland and bore the signatures of Pierre Jeanneret, is being auctioned in Spain for a minimum bid of 340 euros.

The letter is to be auctioned under the category of autographs, as per international auction of ‘autographs and manuscripts’ in Spain.

Ajay Jagga, a member of the Heritage Items Protection Cell, UT, in a letter written to UT Adviser Manoj Kumar Parida has demanded an increase in security of all letters written by the Swiss architect.

Jagga stated that there was a need to create an inventory for all documents lying in the files/museums and on display in museums; as these were likely under threat from international auction houses.

Jeanneret was responsible for much of Chandigarh’s large civic architecture project. His famous famous buildings in Chandigarh are Le Corbusier Centre, primary schools and colleges, the Chief Minister’s house, MLA hostels etc.

At the PU, he designed Gandhi Bhawan, the Library, the Administration Building, hostels for boys and girls etc. Furniture items designed by him are in a great demand world over. Several auctions of Jeanneret-designed furniture have been held in foreign countries. A Pierre Jeanneret museum has been set up at house number 57, Sector 5, where the Swiss architect lived for almost 11 years.