Admn rushes notice to stop auction of Le Corbusier’s sketches in Paris

But the notice to stop the auction was sent on the day the auction was to be held — February 16. The notice was sent by Secretary (Urban Planning) Sanjay Kumar through mail,fax and by post to Nicolas Orlowski,director of the selling house.

The auction is being held by auction house Artcurial.

The Administration in the notice said,“The carvings and drawings are a property of (the) Chandigarh Government.” And made a request “to stop the auction immediately till further investigations and…our prior approval”.

Officials in the Administration said they had not been intimidated about the status of the auction.

The Administration has tried to inquire how these items reached Artcurial,because “they are the properties of (the) Chandigarh Government and we have never handed over these items to anybody. There can be a situation where either these items have been stolen or they have been duplicated. We are looking into these aspects”.

Such items are kept in the Le Corbusier Centre in Sector 19 and the City Museum in Sector 10.

Copies of the notice have been sent to the co-chairman of Artcurial,Francois Tajan,the Indian Ambassador in Paris,the French Ambassador in Delhi and the director,Foundation of Le Corbusier,Paris.

This is the second such auction by Artcurial after the sell-out ‘Chandigarh Project I’ in 2006.

The auction catalogue says,“Chandigarh Project II offers the chance to acquire treasures evoking Le Corbusier’s and Pierre Jeanneret’s quest for harmony for the Beautiful City of Chandigarh: rare concrete lighting bollards; original symbolic moulds; and Le Corbusier’s vividly colourful tapestry designs.”

“With Chandigarh Project II,Artcurial offers for sale a rich and moving testimony to one of the 20th century’s most daring architectural projects,” the catalogue reads.

On sale

Items on sale include a sketch of the Open Hand (priced at 800-1,200 euros),a carved teak plywood model of the Open Hand (priced at 12,000-14,000 euros),a hardboard plate engraved with the Modular symbol (priced at 8,000-10,000 euros) and other carvings and sketches of Giani Rattan Singh and Le Corbusier.