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Yale
Returns Incan Artifacts to Peru 100 Years Later |
Posted:11.14.07
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After years of tense negotiations, Yale University agreed in
September to return a massive collection of ceramic, bone, metal
and stone artifacts taken from Peru's Machu Picchu ruins nearly
100 years ago.
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The more than 4,000 artifacts
were excavated from the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, now believed
to be the summer  sanctuary
of the Inca Emperor Pachacutec, by Yale professor Hiram Bingham
III in a series of archeological digs that took place between 1912
and 1915.
Over the course of those digs, Bingham shipped crates of artifacts
back to Yale in Connecticut, where the collection has remained
to this day.
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Yale and
Peru fight over ownership |
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In 2002, disagreement erupted between Yale and the Peruvian government
over rightful ownership of the artifacts.
The Peruvian government contended that the artifacts were merely
on loan and that their return was long overdue. Yale disagreed,
arguing that it kept only those objects that it fully owned after
returning any loaned objects in the 1920s.
 Negotiations
over ownership of the artifacts lasted for several years, and
tensions escalated, with former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo
at one point threatening to sue the university.
"This is our patrimony. This is everything to us - proof
that even though today we are poor, our ancestors lived great
and proud," David Ugarte of Peru's National Culture Center
told USA Today last year. "Bingham said he was going to study
those pieces and give them back. It was clear to all they were
to be returned."
In 2006, talks between the Ivy League university and the South
American nation broke down.
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New collaboration |
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But negotiations resumed
when Toledo left power later that year, and an agreement reached
Sept. 14 between Yale and the Peruvian government ended the standoff.
According to the agreement, outlined in a joint statement issued
by Yale and the Peruvian government, official ownership rights
to all of the artifacts will go to Peru.
 The
agreement also establishes a new collaborative relationship between
Yale and Peru. The two will co-sponsor an internationally traveling
exhibition featuring artifacts from the collection.
After its world tour, the exhibition will find a permanent home
in a new museum to be built in Cusco, a historic city near Machu
Picchu. The new museum, for which Yale will serve as an advisor,
is slated to be completed in 2010.
"This understanding represents a new model of international
cooperation providing for the collaborative stewardship of cultural
and natural treasures," Yale said in the statement.
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Ancient relics
from an ancient city |
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The Incas built the city
of Machu Picchu around 1450 along a ridge between two mountain peaks
in the Andes. Constantly surrounded by a layer of clouds, Machu
Picchu boasts an elevation of nearly 8,000 ft.
 For
many years, it sat shrouded in the clouds, forgotten by all but
a handful of local farmers. The city was so high, even the Spanish
conquerors missed it in the 1500s.
The city was "rediscovered" in 1911 by Hiram Bingham
III, a charismatic Yale professor and adventurer who originally
excavated the artifacts and sent them back to Yale.
Today, Machu Picchu is one of South America's top tourist attractions
with stone palaces, baths, temples, tombs, sundials, agricultural
terraces and also llamas roaming among hundreds of small grey
houses.
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Who owns
the artifacts? |
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The question of who owns
cultural objects is not unique to the dispute between Yale and Peru.
 Museums
worldwide are facing pressure from countries like Greece and Italy
to return ancient artwork and other cultural artifacts.
In many cases, the countries contend that objects were illegally
looted.
Last month, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Calif.,
returned four Italian ceramic objects dating from the 4th and
5th centuries B.C. and the Princeton University Art Museum agreed
to return 15 disputed antiquities, including a Greek painted vase
dating from 510-500 B.C.
--Compiled
by Sarah Murphy for NewsHour Extra
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