CHANDIGARH: The heritage furniture articles with a combined estimate of €133,000 to €176,000 (approximately Rs 1.73 crore to Rs 2.30 crore), associated with Chandigarh are to go under the hammer at Paris Oise Enchères auction house in Chantilly, France, on October 25, with just seven days available heritage activist Ajay Jagga and member of the Chandigarh Heritage Items Protection Cell and Chandigarh Administrator's Advisory Council today alerted the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Culture seeking intervention and prevention of the proposed auction.
Despite the fact that a pair of Pierre Jeanneret X-Leg Armchairs auctioned €3,000 in the Netherlands on October 10 remains unrecovered despite fifteen days' advance notice to the Chandigarh Administration.
Seven of the nine lots carry explicit catalogue declarations of Chandigarh Administrative Buildings as provenance. Jagga has noted that Lot 287 a rare large teak table is separately described as a special commission for the dependencies of the Palace of the Maharaja of Patiala, requiring independent provenance verification rather than automatic Chandigarh attribution.
The demountable administrative office listed as Lot 283 and the monumental filing cabinet at Lot 233 is estimated at €20,000-25,000 and €30,000-40,000 respectively are among the most significant institutional pieces to surface in any auction this year.
In a representation to the Ministries of External Affairs and Culture and the Chandigarh Administration, Jagga sought immediate verification of the provenance and ownership of the articles and requested that the auction be put on hold pending the inquiry.
According to the details provided in the representation, several articles are described in the auction catalogue as originating from administrative buildings in Chandigarh.
The items include a set of two Senate Committee chairs, a pair of Avocat armchairs, an Avocat sofa, a bookcase, office cane chairs, a demountable administrative office and a filing cabinet described as being in the style of Jeanneret.
Jagga said the catalogue descriptions warranted immediate verification by the competent authorities, including examination of government inventories, disposal records, transfer documents and permissions relating to the removal of the furniture.
He urged the Ministry of External Affairs to use diplomatic channels to approach the concerned foreign authorities and auction house to seek a hold on the sale until the ownership and provenance of the articles were established and also sought appropriate police action wherever evidence of unauthorised removal, misappropriation, theft or illegal disposal was found.
In his representation, Jagga referred to an earlier communication dated September 25 regarding Chandigarh-linked heritage furniture and said an auction had nevertheless proceeded on October 10.
The furniture designed by Jeanneret forms part of Chandigarh's architectural and cultural history, careful examination before their ownership and movement can be established, the representation stated.
The nine lots and a combined upper estimate of €176,000, the Chantilly sale is the largest concentration of Chandigarh heritage furniture in a single overseas auction since 20 items went under the hammer in Paris in October 2022 for Rs 3.81 crore.
Jagga has also drawn an explicit SOP map for the authorities: Culture to Police — Police to lodge FIR — back to Culture — Culture forwarding to MEA — MEA activating diplomatic channels in France to move for suspension of the auction.
"The occurrence of the auction despite prior intimation makes the present situation all the more serious and calls for immediate preventive intervention before October 25 so that the same situation is not repeated," he stated.
