After his studies at the United State College for Applied Arts in Berlin and at the Polytechnic Univeristy in London, Eckard Muthesius (1904-1989) initially worked in the architectural office of James & Yerbury and later for Sir Raymond Unwin. After this, he became a master's apprentice in the studio of his father Hermann Muthesius, founder of the German Werkbund.
In 1929, he met Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar Bahadur, who later became the maharajah of Indore, in Oxford. He commissioned him to build and furnish his palace "Manik Bagh", in English "Ruby Garden". Over the course of four years, an Art Deco gem emerged. Muthesius created the design of the palace and the designs of many furniture pieces and lamps; moreover, he integrated furniture by Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier and many more.
From 1936 to 1939, Muthesius became the Head of the Municipal Planning and Redevelopment Authority and an advising architect of the Estate of Indore. When the war began, he had to leave India and returned to Berlin where he worked as a freelance architect. Today, the "Manik Bagh" palace serves as the Ministry of Finance for the State of Maghya Pradesh. The interior was auctioned to the highest bidder in 1980 in the Sporting Hiver Monte Carlo by Sotheby Parke Barnet – a tribute to Eckart Muthesius.