A manhole cover for $ 21,000!

CHANDIGARH: A manhole cover fetching thousands of dollars is an astounding piece of news. But, more surprising is the fact that the Chandigarh Union Territory administration — custodian of the legacy of master architect Le Corbusier — has turned a blind eye to these covers being stolen and then finding their way to auction houses.
With London-based auction house Bonhams announcing an auction of furnitures designed by Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret on September 22, the mystery of manhole covers has come back to haunt the administration.These are special as each one of them bears the imprint of Chandigarh’s masterplan drawn up by Corbusier. The covers, cast iron pieces used mostly in the first phase of the city, were the brainchild of the architect himself.
Auction house Christies sold one such manhole cover, “moulded with sand-cast relief depicting a map of Chandigarh as drawn by Le Corbusier” for a whopping $ 21,600 on June 5, 2007 at an auction held in Rockefeller Plaza, New York.
The auction house had quoted a note by a retired professor from Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA), Kiran Joshi on Jeanneret’s manhole covers.