UT’s heritage sold for Rs 1.12 cr in US

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 18

A London-based auction house has auctioned UT’s heritage furniture for Rs 1.12 crore in New York. Three items of Chandigarh were auctioned on June 6 in New York.

A sofa designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret for the High Court and Assembly in Chandigarh in 1955-1956 has been auctioned for $50,000.

A pair of armchairs designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret also for the High Court and the Assembly was auctioned for $1,00,000.

Similarly, an “executive” desk designed by Pierre Jeanneret for administrative buildings in Chandigarh went for $10,625.

Ajay Jagga, member, Heritage Protection Cell, Chandigarh, said: “Foreign auction houses are selling Indian heritage even after international commitment to UNESCO to combat trafficking of cultural objects. In 2018, the EU started taking measures to prevent illegal trafficking of cultural goods. EU ambassadors’ meeting in COREPER today endorsed a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a draft regulation, which will prevent the import and storage in the EU of cultural goods illegally exported from a non-EU country.”

“As such, it is requested that the matter may please be examined as it pertains to financial loss, loss of prestige and heritage and violation of the ban of the MHA on the sale/export of heritage furniture designed by Pierre Jeanneret/Le Corbusier,” Jagga requested in his plaint to the Home Minister, the Minister of External Affairs and the US Embassy.