No stopping auctions, Chandigarh’s heritage up for grabs Down Under

Amarjot Kaur

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 25

Another heritage chair of the City Beautiful will be auctioned on foreign shores.

A 1952-dated heritage chair collected from Chandigarh and designed by city’s first Chief Architect Pierre Jeanneret is all set to go under the hammer in Australia on August 31, states a letter sent to India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

In his letter, Ajay Jagga, a member of the city’s Heritage Items Protection Cell, informed the ministry that a Sydney-based auction house had pegged the estimated price of the city’s heritage ‘conference chair’ between 4,000 AUD and 6,000 AUD (roughly amounting to Rs2.15 lakh and Rs3.22 lakh).

He further wrote: “The auction house has mentioned that the (chair’s) acquisition year is 2015, whereas the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) had banned the sale and export of Chandigarh furniture (designed by Pierre Jeanneret) in 2011 in an order dated February 22, 2011; thus you are requested to look into the matter as to how this chair was procured by the auctioneer, so that the loss resulting from the loot and the loss of the nation’s prestige can be stopped.”

The heritage ‘conference chair’ with a teak frame with braided cane work also has a painted inventory number ‘ACA-CH/W9’, the letter highlights.

Jagga has appealed to the minister that the auction can be stalled after ascertaining the facts and by holding an inquiry and using diplomatic channels. He wrote: “Since the auction is taking place outside India, it is under the jurisdiction of the External Affairs Ministry, that’s why this communication is addressed to you and since the auction is taking place in Australia, so the Ambassador is also being informed by way of sending a copy of this communication.”

First to have identification mark, says Jagga

Jagga said, “This will be the 13th heritage auction (of UT items) in 2021 alone. Another important thing is that this is for the first time that the auction house has declared the identification mark/tag of this chair i.e. ACA-CH/W9. The only instance of the identification of a heritage item in the history of these auctions is of 2018 when the office of the Commissioner of Customs (Export) and Inland Container Depot, Tughlakabad, New Delhi, held a consignment of Chandigarh furniture, contacted us.”

Description given by Sydney auctioneer

• Pierre Jeanneret (Swiss, 1896-1967)
• Conference chair, designed c. 1952
• Teak frame, seat with braided cane work, painted inventory number ‘ACA-CH/W9’

Measurements

• Height 84 cm, width 51 cm, depth 49 cm
• Provenance: Chandigarh, India, private collection, Sydney, Shapiro SH115, lot 34, November 2015, private collection, Sydney
• Estimated cost: $4,000 – $6,000