3 UT heritage items sold for Rs 10 lakh in Luxembourg
In an auction of the city’s heritage items, three artefacts were sold for Rs 10.23 lakh in Luxembourg on December 1.
Ajay Jagga, a member of the Heritage Items Protection Cell of the Chandigarh Administration, said the artefacts, designed by Pierre Jeanneret, included a set of two office cane chairs, a rectangular low stool with antique plastic case base and a student chair with a flat back and straight ‘inverted Y’ legs supporting the fixed writing desk. He said the pair of chairs fetched the highest amount of Rs 6.76 lakh during the auction conducted by Lux Auction Stadtbredimus in Luxembourg.
Seeking the protection of UT heritage items from being auctioned all over the world, Jagga, in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, has stated that the auction was not in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi”.
He said in response to his earlier representations on the same topic, the Ministry of Culture took action and asked the agencies, including the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), to look into the matter and take action. However, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is yet to take cognisance of this matter and take some remedial measures, he added.
“In fact, the heritage articles are being auctioned regularly in foreign countries without any resistance from Government of India,” he added.
He requested the Centre that the Indian Embassies must be sensitised to our heritage, so that they can at least raise objection to save the heritage. The ongoing auctions can be stopped only through diplomatic channels. The items of the city heritage were illegally taken out of the country.
