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When Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned the French architect Le Corbusier to build
the city Chandigarh he proclaimed it as the embodiment of a newly
independent India “unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the
nation’s faith in the future”.

The resulting feat of urban planning has been proclaimed as Corbusier’s
masterpiece – a city built from scratch in the plains of Punjab from the
street layout to the public buildings. Crucially, such was the attention to
detail of the Swiss-born maestro that he also insisted on being responsible
for the furniture inside his buildings, commissioning his cousin Pierre
Jeanneret to design thousands of pieces of equipment to sit inside their
monuments of 1950s minimalist design.

Such is the enduring appeal of Corbusier and everything he touched that
Chandigarh, which now has India’s highest per capita income, has become a
symbol for a less glamorous feature of the nation it was designed to
symbolise. Amid India’s high-speed transformation into a world power, the
purpose-built furniture that once filled the city’s chic public spaces is
being systematically sold off in the auction rooms of London, New York and
Paris.

The level of demand means that even the most mundane items, such as
Corbusier-designed manhole covers and street lamps, are now fetching
thousands of pounds as collectors flock to own a part of one of the 20th
century’s great architectural ventures.

A combination of entrepreneurial western antique dealers, poor maintenance
which has left dozens of chairs and tables gathering dust in store rooms and
a failure to recognise the value of the 1950s furnishings has resulted in
items being sold in Chandigarh for a few hundred rupees before being
auctioned in Europe and the United States for large sums.

The scale of the loss of the fixtures and fittings from buildings including
the city’s High Court and its College of Architecture has become so serious
that it has now provoked academics and officials in Chandigarh to demand
measures to protect what remains of Corbusier and Jeanneret’s furnishings.

Anger at the sale of the teak and rosewood creations last month led to a
formal appeal to the British high commission in Delhi by Chandigarh’s
government to halt the sale by London auctioneer’s Bonhams of 20 items of
furniture that once graced places including the city’s library and
magistrates’ court. The sale went ahead after the auction house provided
evidence that all the items had been legitimately acquired.

Rajnish Wattas, former head of the Chandigarh College of Architecture, said:
“While Corbusier is a living legacy not only in the city’s buildings,
mansions and boulevards, but also in the fixtures designed for them, their
custodians seem to have forgotten the ways to conserve these. This priceless
treasure today lies carelessly strewn around in various offices, gathers
dust in government storerooms or is sold off at auctions.”

The masterplan for Chandigarh, built on a system of residential zones where
amenities would be no more than 10 minutes walk away and completed by a
complex of key administrative buildings, was reputedly draw up by Le
Corbusier in a single four-day visit in 1951.

Although Le Corbusier returned to the project regularly, he handed over the
day-to-day execution of his grand vision to Pierre Jeanneret, who in turn
designed the thousands of desks, chairs, beds, shelving units, benches,
sofas and other items to be used in public buildings and private homes. Le
Corbusier himself designed a series of magisterial tapestries to be hung in
the law courts.

But while many of the buildings themselves are considered to have withstood
the test of time, much of the furniture fell into disuse and was bought up
in sales of “condemned” fixtures and fittings by European dealers between
1999 and 2008. The tapestries have been taken down and lie in a storeroom
awaiting restoration.

Amid claims that some city officials may have added items to the sales by
passing them off as privately-owned furniture, frustration is rising at the
failure of attempts draw up a list of all the Jeanneret furniture still
inside Chandigarh’s public buildings and thus stem the outward flow of the
city’s cultural legacy.

Professor Kiran Joshi, a former lecturer at the Chandigarh College of
Architecture, who was tasked with drawing up a catalogue, said: “I tried to
say we needed to make an inventory of what was heritage [furniture] and what
was not. We need to have a policy about what to do with these things. We
have some things here that are specific to the city – they cannot be
replicated elsewhere. It would be very bad if we lost them.”

Attempts by the Chandigarh authorities to challenge the loss of “heritage”
last month saw a plea to the British high commission in Delhi to intervene
to stall the sale at Bonhams of items including six library chairs and three
“Senate” chairs from the legislative assembly for the city, which serves as
the regional capital for two Indian states – Punjab and Haryana.

The Independent understands that the auction house was also approached by the
Indian high commission in London on behalf of the Chandigarh government with
questions about the provenance of the furniture. A Bonhams’ spokesman said:
“We go to very considerable lengths to ensure that items offered for sale
are presented with the correct documentation and proof of ownership. We
provided the high commission with evidence from the vendor that each item
had been correctly and legitimately purchased. They were happy for the sale
to proceed.” There is no suggestion that the furniture was not bought
legally.

The proceeds of the sale show the premium attached to Jeanneret furniture –
the eight lots fetched a total of more than £33,000 with the three “Senate”
chairs selling for £7,500 and a small rosewood desk and teak chair reaching
£4,800.

An auction Christie’s in New York in 2007 achieved even more astonishing
returns with a manhole cover featuring Le Corbusier’s “dove” emblem for the
city selling for $ 21,000 (£13,000) and a teak library table fetching
$ 144,000.

The Chandigarh authorities are currently studying a magistrate’s report into
the disappearance of Jeanneret furniture from administrative buildings but
privately officials concede there is little that can be done to recover the
myriad elements of Le Corbusier’s vision that have now disappeared to the
homes of collectors.

Their dismay is shared by the Le Corbusier Foundation in Paris, set up to
safeguard the architect’s work. Michel Richard, its director, told The
Independent: “It can only be regrettable that these furnishings are now
being dispersed in auctions in Europe. As far as we are concerned, wherever
possible these items should remain in the buildings for which they were
conceived. It is a pity that Chandigarh today no longer has at least one
example of each of the items of furniture designed for its key buildings.”