Heritage furniture: Two lounge chairs from PU sold for Rs 1.14 crore at Chicago auction

The furniture designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his associate Pierre Jeanneret (Express Photo)

Two lounge chairs from Panjab University, designed by Pierre Jeanneret, went for a whopping Rs 1.14 crore at an auction held in Chicago, USA. A total of 15 such items, designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his associate Jeanneret which went under the hammer yet again at the auction abroad, fetched a total of Rs 2.75 crore to the auction houses.

Of these items, a pair of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret bridge armchairs, designed for the Punjab and Haryana High Court, went for Rs 22.70 lakh while the sofa, designed by Jeanneret for the High Court, went for Rs 10.54 lakh.

Two committee armchairs, designed by Jeanneret for the High Court, went for Rs 7.29 lakh and Rs 10.54 lakh, respectively. Similarly, a sofa, designed by Jeanneret for Panjab University, was sold for Rs 42.17 lakh while two writing chairs went for around Rs 4.54 lakh. Another committee armchair for the High Court was auctioned at Rs 12.97 lakh while two different lots of linen chest for MLA flats was auctioned for Rs 5.67 lakh and Rs 4.46 lakh, respectively. Also, a folding screen from the administrative buildings went under the hammer for Rs 11.35 lakh.

There is no end to the auction of heritage furniture abroad. The UT Administration feels that the furniture has gone in bulk from Chandigarh long back and is now being auctioned in bits and pieces.

Social activist Ajay Jagga has now written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh asking why the Indian authorities are not resisting these auctions. “The action took place without any resistance from any authorities of India. As per reports, such goods are smuggled out of India on forged papers. So, there is an urgent need to check and verify such consignments going out of India, apart from verifying the transaction of the last six years,” said Jagga.

Since 2011, activist Ajay Jagga had been writing to the Chandigarh Administration to probe the disappearance of furniture designed by Corbusier and Jeanneret and their appearance at auction houses in Europe and America, where each piece was sold for lakhs.

DRI had written to Punjab government, demanding action against their officer NPS Randhawa for his alleged transactions with a businessman accused of smuggling antique furtniture from Chandigarh. But the Punjab government has not done anything till now.