5 Chandigarh heritage items to be sold in Luxembourg

Chandigarh, March 20

Five heritage furniture items of the city will go under the hammer in Luxembourg (Europe) on March 24 with an auction price of Rs 37.80 lakh.

The artefacts, designed by Pierre Jeanneret, include a set of two easy armchairs, a writing chair, a low rectangular stool, a small desk, a set of two office cane chairs. The pair of easy arm chairs is the costliest item at Rs 14.40 lakh.

In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Union Minister for Culture G Kishanreddy, Ajay Jagga, a member of the Heritage Items Protection Cell of the Chandigarh Administration, has stated that the foreign auction houses are still auctioning Indian heritage items and making a huge money, despite the fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has banned the movement of such goods beyond Chandigarh in 2011.

Furniture designed by Pierre Jeanneret is very popular and is in heavy demand in the UK, the US and Europe.

“There is already a law to regulate the export trade in antiquities and art treasures, but the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) says the Chandigarh goods are not antiquity, although they have imposed a soft ban on their movement outside India at all the airport and seaports. However, it is observed that these articles are clearly covered under the definition of “art treasure”, i.e. Section 2 (b) of the Act,” he said.

Accordingly, it must be examined that the declaration of Chandigarh heritage articles as art treasure will ensure the ban on its export.

Despite the smuggling of heritage items in the past more than 15 years, offices, Punjab and Haryana High Court, PGI and Panjab University must be having articles worth Rs 1,000 crore at present.