Even as the ink has barely dried on the Brussels sale of seven Chandigarh heritage pieces for Rs 1.6 crore on June 18, two more Pierre Jeanneret-designed armchairs from the city’s Capitol Project are scheduled to go under the hammer in Paris on June 25, this time not through a major auction house but through an independent Parisian auctioneer, François Epin.
Heritage activist and advocate Ajay Jagga, a member of the UT Heritage Items Protection Cell, on Monday shot off advance intimation to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Indian Ambassador to France Sanjeev Singla, urging diplomatic intervention to halt the sale before Wednesday.
Crucially, unlike his earlier representations which had been addressed only to New Delhi, Jagga this time copied the Indian Embassy in Paris directly, attaching a pointed appeal to the Ambassador to raise a formal objection.
Both pieces are teak-and-cane armchairs designed by Jeanneret, and both carry the institutional identification marks that establish their government provenance beyond any dispute.
The first, estimated at €5,000 to €7,000 (approximately Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6.3 lakh), bears the marking PU/Chem/55, indicating its origin from Panjab University’s Chemistry Department.
The second, estimated at €4,000 to €5,000 (Rs 3.6 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh), carries the marking PGI/W/CH-0202, pointing directly to PGIMER, Chandigarh.
The identity of the auctioneer is notable. Jagga’s representation flags that the sale is being handled not by an established design auction house but by François Epin, described as a specialist who previously headed the Decorative Arts and Design department at Pierre Bergé & Associés in Paris and Brussels, one of the most prominent French auction firms historically associated with Chandigarh-era modernist furniture sales.
The shift to individual auctioneers suggests the Chandigarh furniture market has now permeated deeper into the Parisian trade ecosystem, beyond the handful of recognised houses that have drawn scrutiny in the past.
In his letter, Jagga reiterated that the Ministry of Home Affairs order of February 22, 2011, expressly prohibits not just the export but even the inter-building transfer of Chandigarh heritage furniture without authorisation, making these sales prima facie illegal under binding government instructions.
“This loot by foreigners should not continue after 79 years of independence,” he wrote, adding: “At least we should raise an objection.”
He invoked India’s obligations under the United Nations treaty framework on cultural artefacts, urging that diplomatic channels be activated urgently for both the Paris sale and any future listings.
The development comes in quick succession to a string of recent international sales. Seven items sold in Brussels for Rs 1.6 crore on June 18, despite advance written intimation to the two central ministries two days before the auction, and seven items fetched Rs 1.16 crore at a Wright auction house sale in Chicago on June 4, which had included MLA Hostel furniture from Punjab Vidhan Sabha, prompting Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to seek a custody report from the Chandigarh Administration.
Across at least 100 open international auctions since 2009, Chandigarh’s heritage furniture is estimated to have generated Rs 40 to Rs 50 crore for foreign dealers and auction houses, with individual pieces fetching as much as Rs 1.92 crore, a Panjab University library table sold in Tel Aviv in 2018.
The Paris sale of two relatively modest-estimate chairs is, in one sense, a footnote to that larger haemorrhage.
In another, it is the sharper symbol: the PGIMER marking on one of the chairs means that a piece of furniture from one of independent India’s own flagship public health institutions, built in the same founding decade as Chandigarh itself, is about to be sold in a Parisian saleroom three days from now, unless an Indian diplomat makes a phone call in time.
As of the time of going to press, no response from the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Culture or the Indian Embassy in Paris was available.
