Chandigarh: Day bed designed by Pierre Jeanneret auctioned for 13 lakh
Ajay Jagga, Member heritage protection cell, wrote a letter written to S Jayashankar, Union Minister for External Affairs, GOI in this regard.
Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. (Photo courtesy: Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris; Bonhams website) A day bed designed by Pierre Jeanneret for Chandigarh went under the hammer for a whopping Rs 13.26 lakh (15,000 Euros) at an auction of heritage items, held in Paris on Thursday.
Ajay Jagga, Member heritage protection cell, wrote a letter written to S Jayashankar, Union Minister for External Affairs, GOI in this regard.
“Trafficking in cultural property involves several acts that may ultimately result in the loss, destruction, removal or theft of irreplaceable item,” he specified.
Questioning how these items reached France in the first place, he said, “In view of the fact that there is no protest of resistance from Government of India, continuous auctions of our heritage in foreign countries are going on, thus there is an emergent need to get the matter examined from the law enforcing agencies of Belgium, as to how these items reached Paris when there is a ban on the export of these items, by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Whether Smuggled? Whether Importers came to Indian on a tourist visas or business visas? What documents they attached with the consignment, while exporting them abroad?”
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