Machu Picchu and Yale University

Machu Picchu and Yale University Controversy

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Machu Picchu and Yale University
 About 5,000 artifacts taken from the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru nearly a century ago.

Yale historian Hiram Bingham rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911, and backed by the National Geographic Society, he returned with large expeditions in 1912 and 1915. Each time, he carted out crates filled with archaeological finds. Yale University is embroiled in an escalating dispute with Peru over the return of treasures from the world-famous Incan site of Machu Picchu that are on display as part of the ivy-league university's permanent collection.

On 21 November 2010, Yale University agreed in principle to the return of the controversial artifacts to their original home in Peru.

Following a compilation of news stories (years 2011 - 2007) on the controversy.

Machu Picchu artifacts exhibition attracts over 30,000 visitors

April 8, 2011. Source: Andina.com.pe

More than 30,000 people have visited so far the free exhibition of archaeological pieces from Machu Picchu artifacts returned by Yale University at the Government Palace in Lima, Peru’s Culture Ministry estimated.

This exhibition which is opened since April 5th attracted nearly 22,500 local and foreign tourists, the Director of Museum and Historic Heritage Management of this sector, Marisol Ginocchio noted. “Crowds of people are visiting the exhibition which is carried out without problems,” the archaeologist said to Andina.

Yale to return Peruvian artifacts

November 20, 2010. Source: Yale Daily News by Drew Henderson. UPDATED 11:35 p.m.

Machu Picchu and Yale

After nearly 100 years of disputes over the ownership of Inca artifacts, Yale will return the items found by Hiram Bingham III 1898 to Peru beginning early next year.

Reached after the Harvard-Yale football game Saturday afternoon, University President Richard Levin said he was "quite pleased" that Yale and Peru had been able to reach the "framework" of an agreement regarding the artifacts.

"But the details are still being finalized over the weekend," he added.

Levin declined to comment on how long some of the artifacts will remain in New Haven, but he said that all of the relics will ultimately be returned to Peru. He said the time frame for their return is still being finalized.

A delegation from Yale consisting of former President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo, Director of the Peabody Museum Derek Briggs and professor of anthropology Richard Burger arrived yesterday in Peru to negotiate with Peruvian President Alan Garcia, Levin said. In the past, Yale representatives have never dealt with such high-ranking members of the Peruvian government, Levin said.

Peru sued Yale in December 2008 for the artifacts' return. Levin declined to comment on how the new agreement will affect the status of the lawsuit.

In a press release this afternoon, Sen. Chris Dodd, who expressed his support for the artifacts' return to Peru in June 2010, said the artifacts will be returned beginning in early 2011 and housed in San Pedro de Abad University in Cusco.

In the release, Dodd said he applauds Yale's decision.

"These artifacts do not belong to any government, to any institution, or to any university — they belong to the people of Peru," Dodd said.

The artifacts are currently at the Peabody Museum in New Haven.

Clarification

An earlier version of this story quoted University President Richard Levin as saying the University and Peru had reached a "constructive agreement" regarding the Inca artifacts. Levin had clarified that a full agreement was not in place, only the "framework" of one.

Yale to return all Machu Picchu artifacts

November 19, 2010. Source: Andina.com.pe

Lima, Nov. 19 (ANDINA). Peruvian President Alan Garcia announced Friday that Yale University has agreed to return the entire collection of archaeological pieces taken from Peru's famed Machu Picchu citadel almost a century ago.

In a televised address to the nation, the president said the artifacts would start arriving in Peru early next year, after completion of Yale's inventory of the pieces.

Garcia Perez added that once in Peru, the objects will remain at the San Pedro de Abad University in Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.

"The Peruvian government is thankful for this decision and recognizes that Yale conserved these pieces, which otherwise might have fallen into private collections or been lost, and recognizes the research it conducted over the years," said the president.

Garcia made the announcement following a 90-minute talk with former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, who as Director of the Center for the Study of Globalization at Yale University, is visiting Peru on behalf of the U.S.-based university’s president Richard C. Levin.

Peru says Yale to return Machu Picchu relics

November 19, 2010. Source: TorontoSun.com by Marco Aquino and Terry Wade, Reuters.

LIMA - Peru said Friday that Yale University has agreed to return thousands of artifacts taken from the Machu Picchu archeological site in the Andes in the early 1900s, and the pact could end a bitter controversy.

According to Peru, the elite U.S. university has some 40,000 of artifacts including pottery, jewelry and bones from the ruins of the mountaintop Incan site that is one of South America's leading tourist attractions.

President Alan Garcia said on state-run television he had worked out a deal with Yale officials and that the pieces would start arriving in Peru early next year.

"The Peruvian government is thankful for this decision and recognizes that Yale conserved these pieces, which otherwise might have fallen into private collections or been lost, and recognizes the research it conducted over the years."

A Yale spokeswoman declined to provide immediate comment.

The artifacts were sent out of Peru after a Yale alumnus, U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911. Peru contends that the objects were lent to the New Haven, Connecticut, school for 18 months but never sent back.

In the long-standing dispute, Yale showed a willingness to return the pieces under a previous agreement, so long as Peru could ensure they were cared for properly. Critics complained that the pieces should be returned unconditionally. Peru filed a lawsuit against Yale in 2008 to get the pieces back.

Garcia sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama last week asking for help in having the pieces returned without conditions. Earlier this month Garcia led a march through the streets of Lima to draw attention to the issue.

Yale officials are expected to met with Peruvian officials this weekend in Lima.
 

Yale asks dismissal of lawsuit over Peru artifacts

January 11, 2010. Source: BostonHerald.com by Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — Yale University asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit by Peru seeking the return of thousands of artifacts from the famed Machu Picchu site, saying the claims were filed years too late.

Peru rejects the argument, saying Yale never owned the Incan artifacts that were taken from the South American nation nearly a century ago.

Yale filed court papers Friday arguing that the Peru’s lawsuit, filed in December 2008, should be dismissed because of a three-year statute of limitations under Connecticut law. Peru argues that under its own law, its claims are not subject to a statute of limitations.
 

Yale's artifact battle with Peru coming to Connecticut

August 6, 2009. Source: Hartford Museum Examiner by Jim Kane

The tug-of-war between Yale University and the government of Peru over Incan antiquities will move to the federal courts in Connecticut rather than being heard in Washington, D.C., according to a recent report from yaledailynews.com.

The transfer happened last week and the relics are currently being held at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History (http://www.peabody.yale.edu/) in New Haven.

Yale has been trying to get the suit moved closer to home since it was first filed in December. At issue are a treasure trove of Machu Picchu materials which were excavated early last century by Yalie globetrotter and future Connecticut governor Hiram Bingham III.

Yale University and the Peruvian government formed an agreement in the fall of 2007 for the return of 4,000 objects, but the Peruvians later upped the number to 40,000.

Yale claims there is no legal basis for the suit and has been trying to get it completely thrown out of court, yet Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. decided to just transfer the case, according to the Yale Daily News' site..
 

Peru is rightful owner of artifacts

June 9, 2009. Source: Miami Herald, Other Views by Eliane Karp-Toledo

The appropriation of a foreign nation's archaeological heritage often is associated with the blurry circumstances of war, painful episodes of conquest, or the illicit looting of sites. In the case of the Machu Picchu artifacts appropriated by Yale University, however, there is no controversy concerning their origin, who removed them, or the binding terms under which their removal was temporarily allowed.

Many years of frustrated negotiations, and Yale's presentation of an insensitive ''Memorandum of Understanding'' in 2007, finally led the Republic of Peru to file a lawsuit against Yale in the District Court for Washington, D.C., in December 2008.

This April 6, in a speech to the Political Union at Yale, I had the opportunity to present irrefutable evidence that renders the university's unwillingness to return the collection indefensible.

The thousands of artifacts in question were taken from Machu Picchu to Yale by Hiram Bingham, the director of three expeditions to Peru (1911, 1912, 1914-1915), co-sponsored by Yale and The National Geographic Society. During the debate organized by the Yale students, I revealed unpublished letters sent by Bingham to National Geographic over the years he sought funding.

Bingham urged return

In 1916, Bingham urged the timely return of the Machu Picchu pieces: ''[The artifacts] do not belong to us, but to the Peruvian government, which allowed us to take them from the country under the condition that they be returned in eighteen months,'' the explorer wrote. Bingham also told National Geographic that ''the matter has assumed a very large importance in the eyes of the Peruvians, who feel that we are trying to rob their country of its treasures.'' National Geographic responded: ``We ought to abide by the letter of our agreement with the Peruvian Government and return all the material that we contracted to return.''

Contemporary Peruvian law forbade the export of artifacts. Therefore, Bingham had to lobby for special overruling decrees, which were issued in 1912 and 1916. These executive orders, also presented at Yale, allowed Bingham a ''one-time exception,'' to temporarily remove 74 boxes of artifacts from Peruvian territory for ``conducting scientific studies.''

The decrees, however, bound both Yale and National Geographic to return the pieces by 1918. Moreover, the documents explicitly state that the pieces are the property of Peru, which has never relinquished legal title over the collection. These documents show that Peruvian authorities acted in good faith, believing this temporary loan was a true act of cooperation for the advancement of science.

As early as 1918, Peru started requesting the return of the artifacts. From 2001 to 2006, Peru's Alejandro Toledo administration actively sought their repatriation, and prepared a text for a possible lawsuit to be approved by Congress. This April 20, after we made public the uncontested evidence at Yale, Peru decided to file an amended complaint through the D.C. Court. Civil Action No. 1:08-cv-2109 presents 16 new exhibits (including the correspondence between Bingham and the co-sponsors of his expeditions) that confirm, beyond a doubt, that all of the parties originally recognized Peru's ownership of the artifacts and committed to their repatriation.

Peru rightful owner

In addition, National Geographic's Board of Trustees has recently expressed their unanimous opinion that Peru is the rightful owner of the artifacts, and that they should be repatriated. Yale, however, has not responded. In fact, when Yale's students recently invited me to debate this issue, the administration asked their professors not to participate.

Yale continues to be the only party to renege on its legal commitments. Instead of honoring its contract, Yale insists on making absurd, condescending arguments to justify its ''usufructuary'' rights over Peruvian patrimony. For example, Yale has publicly stated that Peru is unable to safely house the pieces in a suitable museum. Ironically, the warehoused collection at Yale is in such poor condition that Peru is also suing for indemnities; in contrast, Peru inaugurated the world-class Royal Tombs Museum of Sipán in 2002.

Machu Picchu has incalculable symbolic value for the Peruvian people, and it is an icon of national identity. Yale should finally honor its contract through the unconditional and immediate return of the entire Machu Picchu collection to Peru. The recently revealed evidence proves the validity of the Peruvian claims, and testifies that repatriation is the only way to an acceptable, ethical solution among civilized parties. Eliane Karp-Toledo, former first lady of Peru, 2001-2006, is a visiting lecturer at Stanford University and distinguished fellow in residence at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

The Republic of Peru has quietly filed a lawsuit against Yale, officially turning a nearly century-long dispute over the rightful ownership of Inca artifacts into a legal battle.

Eliane Karp-Toledo, former first lady of Peru, 2001-2006, is a visiting lecturer at Stanford University and distinguished fellow in residence at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Former Peruvian first lady to debate artifact case

June 6, 2009. Source: Yale Daily News by Paul Needham Staff Reporter

Eliane Karp-Toledo, the former Peruvian first lady whose dogged attacks on Yale helped start a legal battle between the University and Peru, will speak at the Yale Political Union this evening.

Karp-Toledo’s visit comes at a time when Yale and Peru are engaged in a legal battle, as the parties exchange motions responding to the lawsuit Peru filed against Yale in December over the rightful ownership of Inca artifacts housed at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. Her debate at the YPU will be an unusual one, since — at Karp-Toledo’s request — no student vote will be held at the end.

The artifacts in question were excavated by Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III in the early 20th century, and have been in the collection of the University ever since. Peruvians have sought the objects’ return over the last century, but few have been as forceful as Karp-Toledo.

Even still, Karp-Toledo has not been a part of recent negotiations between Yale and Peru, and University General Counsel Dorothy Robinson said the debate would in no way affect the litigation between Yale and Peru.

“Of course, [Karp-Toledo] is very outspoken about her views on the topic,” Robinson added.

Karp-Toledo and her husband, former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, made the repatriation of the artifacts a priority of his administration. Negotiations with Yale at the time, though, were hostile and Peru ultimately threatened litigation.

The administration of current Peruvian President Alan Garcia, a former Peruvian president who succeeded Toledo in 2006, initially seemed more amicable to Yale. But, under pressure from Karp-Toledo, now a lecturer in the anthropology department at Stanford University, Garcia’s administration ultimately sued Yale in December after more than a year of negotiations.

Under Peruvian law, a president cannot serve more than one consecutive five-year term, but can run for office again after staying out of office for at least one term. So when Garcia’s term expires in 2011, Toledo could run again. Alexander Martone ’10, the YPU’s vice president, said this explains in part why the YPU will not hold a vote after this week’s debate.

“It’s a sensitive political issue back in Peru, so we felt that having the vote could overly sensationalize the issue,” added Martone, who invited Karp-Toledo to Yale.

Sensational as the debate might be in Peru, it is less likely to cause major controversy on Yale’s campus. Richard Burger, the Yale archaeologist most closely associated with the artifacts, said he was disappointed that Yale will not be able to defend itself against Karp-Toledo’s charges during her visit. Robinson’s office, he said, has asked all relevant faculty and staff not to comment on the dispute between Yale and Peru while the lawsuit remains active.

“We routinely ask Yale faculty and staff not to comment on pending litigation because they may or may not be fully aware of specifics of the University’s legal position, or the facts or law on which it is based,” Robinson said.

Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said the University has made several resources available to the YPU leadership, so that students could be more informed about the history of the artifacts in advance of the debate.

“We do have concerns about Eliane Karp-Toledo’s past characterization of the facts and of Yale’s position and goals regarding Machu Picchu,” Conroy said. “We have every expectation that the students will do sufficient research to ensure an informed debate.”

Conroy added that Karp-Toledo has decided to allow the news media to attend Monday’s debate, even though some YPU guests “choose not to have media in attendance so the debate is purely an intellectual exercise for the students.” Karp-Toledo, who penned a column for The New York Times that criticized Yale last year, has never been interested in keeping her opinions to herself. She will sit for interviews with various media outlets tomorrow afternoon in a room on campus with a guard stationed in front. The debate will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall. Karp-Toledo and students speakers will debate the topic “Resolved: Yale should return all Machu Picchu artifacts to Peru immediately.”

Peru Sues for Artifacts

December 10, 2008. Source: Yale Daily News

The Republic of Peru has quietly filed a lawsuit against Yale, officially turning a nearly century-long dispute over the rightful ownership of Inca artifacts into a legal battle.

By late Tuesday, Yale had still not been formally served with the 31-page complaint that was filed Friday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. But the lawsuit — in which Peru asks for the immediate return to Machu Picchu of all the artifacts excavated by Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III — comes as a grave setback to University officials who had hoped to resolve the conflict amicably and now say the lawsuit has no basis.

“It’s very disappointing,” University President Richard Levin said in a telephone interview Tuesday night. “We worked very hard to try to steer a responsible course on this matter and we have been on numerous occasions within a hair’s distance of settlement with the Peruvians.”

Indeed, as late as September of last year it had seemed certain that Yale and Peru would reach an agreement over the fate of the artifacts. The memorandum of understanding signed between the parties then would have returned most of the objects to Peru within a few years, though some objects would have remained at Yale for up to 99 years.

Now, according to the complaint, Peru is seeking “the immediate return of all such property as well as damages that it has suffered on account of Yale’s persistent breach of its obligations and profit at the expense of the people of Peru.”

The lawsuit cites Peruvian law dating back to the 19th century as the basis for the nation’s claim to the objects that were excavated between 1911 and 1915 and are now housed at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. But Peru is not just seeking the repatriation of what the lawsuit calls “mummies, skulls, bones and other human remains, pottery and utensils, ceramics, objects of art and other items.”

Instead, Peru is also suing for compensation — the amount of which would be determined at trial — in connection with alleged breaches of agreement on Yale’s part. There are 14 causes of action in Peru’s complaint, including one that accuses Yale of acting fraudulently by not conducting sufficient scientific research on the objects.

In e-mails to the News, University General Counsel Dorothy Robinson declined to discuss the specifics of the lawsuit, saying that Yale had not yet reviewed the complaint in full.

“Clearly it is a case where there is good reason for both sides to reach a creative, constructive resolution,” Robinson said Tuesday. “We will, of course, defend the suit.”

Yale spokesman Tom Conroy also issued a statement Tuesday, in which he decried the Peruvian lawsuit.

“The claims asserted by Peru are barred by the statute of limitations,” Conroy said, “and would have been without merit even if they had been filed within the legal time period.”

William Cook, a partner with the Washington law firm DLA Piper who represents Peru, declined comment Tuesday.

Peru’s ambassador to the United States, Felipe Ortiz de Zevallos, said in an e-mail exchange with the News on Tuesday that the lawsuit is an “extremely sensible and complex” matter.

While de Zevallos declined to comment further, the matter is indeed complex, and has been for some time. September’s memorandum was never finalized as Peruvian politicians split over the question of how many artifacts should be returned immediately. Yale officials said they found it difficult to negotiate with Peru because of the country’s political landscape.

“The Peruvians have consistently backed off from their decisions and reneged on their positions,” Levin said Tuesday.

Ironically, the lawsuit itself comes as little surprise to Yale. Peruvian officials had hinted since April that they would sue Yale, and those intentions were bolstered by the country’s Council of Ministers in November, when it approved in principle the filing of a lawsuit. Peru’s previous administration, which left office in 2006, had also threatened legal action against Yale.

Peru Demanding Artifacts From Yale

November 8 2008. Source: Andina

Peru’s Council of Ministers approved filing a lawsuit against Yale University to retrieve the collection of Peruvian archaeological pieces that were taken out from Machu Picchu, since these take part of our National Cultural Heritage and must be returned, reported the Peruvian minister of labor and employment promotion, Jorge Villasante.

The minister of Labor, who was born in Cusco, stated that these artifacts must be returned and exhibited in a museum located in Cusco region.

He pointed out that according to what was agreed with the Council of Ministers, Peru's Ministry of Justice shall appoint an attorney to defend the interests of the Peruvian State along this process. A group of Peru’s Executive Branch, integrated by the ministers of Education, Jose Antonio Chang; Foreign Affairs, Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde, and Labor, Jorge Villasante Aranibar, will be in charge of monitoring the process.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Labor, the Peruvian president, Alan García, urged the ministers to act swiftly.

Peru Demanding Artifacts From Yale

April 17 2008. Source: Hartford Courant.com, by Kim Martineau

A deal between Yale University and Peru that would have divided the artifacts dug-up nearly a century ago by a Yale professor from Machu Picchu appears to be in jeopardy. In a surprise reversal, Peru is demanding that Yale return all the artifacts, the Yale Daily News reported Thursday.

After rediscovering the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in 1911, Yale professor Hiram Bingham III excavated the site and shipped back bones, ceramics and other items to New Haven. In 2005, the previous president of Peru asked for the collection back and shortly before leaving office, threatened to sue.

When a new president took office, negotiations resumed and last fall, a compromise was struck. Peru would allow some artifacts to stay at Yale, for research, while the rest--ceramics, jewelry and other museum-quality pieces--would go on international tour in a joint collaboration between Yale and Peru. Eventually, the collection would end up in a museum in Peru.

The agreement appeared to unravel in recent months after Peruvian officials visited Yale and examined the artifacts for themselves. Loud criticism also erupted from former first lady Eliane Karp. Now teaching at Stanford University, Karp wants Peru to insist on full-title to the Machu Picchu collection, a view that has resonated in Peru with its history of colonial imperialism.

Yale's Machu Picchu haul 10 times as big as thought

Tuesday April 15 2008. Source: The Guardian, AP

Yale University is holding 40,000 artefacts from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a Peruvian government official told state news agency Andina on Sunday.

Yale agreed last year to return 4,000 pieces including mummies, ceramics and bones taken when Yale scholar Hiram Bingham rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911.

There were no indications of whether Peruvian officials previously knew about the additional 36,000 artefacts, reported after an inventory by Peruvian archaeologists, and no details of their historical significance.

Peru demanded the return of the collection in 2006.

Yale and the Machu Picchu Artifacts

Letter To the Editor:
Related Op-Ed Contributor: The Lost Treasure of Machu Picchu (February 23, 2008)
March 3, 2008. Source: New York Times by Helaine Klasky, Associate Vice President, Yale University New Haven

Machu Picchu Agricultural terraces

Machu Picchu
Agricultural
terraces.
 

Re “The Lost Treasure of Machu Picchu,” by Eliane Karp-Toledo (Op-Ed, Feb. 23):

Peru and Yale share the premise that Machu Picchu belongs to humanity as a cultural patrimony of the world declared by Unesco. Yale recognizes the importance of Machu Picchu to Peruvian identity and history and has always sought an amicable resolution that recognizes a shared interest in stewardship and scholarship.

The memorandum of understanding between the government of Peru under the leadership of President Alan García and Yale University provides that Peru will have sole title to the Machu Picchu materials, including research materials at Yale.

The memorandum also provides for the creation of an international traveling exhibit at Yale’s expense and the return to Peru of almost all museum-quality objects currently held at Yale.

The memorandum further provides for Yale’s participation in advising a Peruvian museum and research center and scholarly exchanges. All of this will be in a collaborative framework.

Helaine Klasky
Associate Vice President, Yale University New Haven
Feb. 25, 2008

 

Times column exacerbates Yale-Peru negotiations

After former Peruvian first lady writes that Yale is ‘acting in an arrogant, neo-colonial manner,’ University pushes back
February 25, 2008. Source: Yale Daily News by Paul Needham, Staff Reporter

The epic saga between Yale and Peru escalated this weekend — in the pages of The New York Times.

In a guest column published Saturday, Eliane Karp de Toledo, Peru’s former first lady, harshly criticized the Memorandum of Understanding that the current Peruvian government and Yale signed in September. On Sunday, University officials struck back at Karp de Toledo in interviews, questioning the validity of her claims and the nature of her motives.

The memorandum of understanding — a copy of which the News obtained from Karp de Toledo last month — was celebrated by both parties as the end to a nearly century-long dispute between Yale and Peru over the rightful ownership of Inca artifacts that Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III excavated from Machu Picchu between 1911 and 1915.

But, Yale officials have said, political disagreement in Peru has stalled the negotiations surrounding a final agreement. On Sunday, Karp de Toledo — whose husband Alejandro Toledo will be eligible to seek Peru’s highest office again in 2011 — said she hopes her piece will clear the slate in the negotiations and force the parties to start anew.

“This is a question of sovereignty, of fairness, of equality,” Karp de Toledo said by phone from Stanford, where she is currently an archaeology lecturer. “Yale is not telling the truth and is acting in an arrogant, neo-colonial manner towards the sovereign nation of Peru. I wanted my article to show people that.”

But University officials and faculty members said what Karp de Toledo’s piece shows most prominently is factual error.

Richard Burger, an archaeology professor at Yale who co-curated an exhibit of the artifacts at the Peabody Museum of Natural History in 2003, said Karp de Toledo’s piece in the Times was an example of “sour grapes.”

“It was filled with distortions, inaccuracies and outright lies,” he said on Sunday. “It is a disgrace.”

Burger said he is disappointed that The Times would publish Karp de Toledo’s article. University Spokeswoman Helaine Klasky is currently drafting a response to The Times, he said.

Representatives of The Times did not return requests for comment Sunday night by press time.

In multiple interviews over the past several weeks, Karp de Toledo has repeatedly denounced the negotiations for two main reasons: She wants all of the artifacts to be returned to Peru as soon as possible and the discussions to be more transparent and open. Burger pinned the responsibility for the confidential nature of the memorandum on the current Peruvian government of President Alan Garcia.

Burger pointed to one passage of Karp de Toledo’s Times piece as a particular example of its “politcal nature.” In it, she wrote that Yale would not allow Peru to conduct an inventory of the several-thousand-piece collection on the grounds that “the archaeologist we had selected was not qualified.”

But Burger — who recently completed an inventory of the objects himself — said there is no basis for this claim.

“There was never a formal request by the Peruvian government to Yale to have a specific archaeologist come to Yale,” he said. “So how could we have rejected it?”

University General Counsel Dorothy Robinson, who said she never personally negotiated with Karp de Toledo, agreed in an e-mail Sunday that “her piece contains a great many inaccuracies.”

Among these, Burger and his wife, Peruvian archaeologist Lucy Salazar said, are Karp de Toledo’s claims that Bingham brought silver statues back to Yale, that he agreed to a 12-month loan which Karp de Toledo said was later extended by a half-year and that Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd supported the Toledo government’s position in the negotiations.

But Karp de Toledo stands behind her piece as written.

The memorandum, which had included provisions for several hundred museum-quality pieces to be returned to a Peruvian museum after travelling the world in an exhibition, she said, does not go far enough. Specifically, Karp de Toledo takes issue with the fact that, under the terms of the memorandum, some non-museum-quality pieces would remain at Yale for up to 99 years.

Karp de Toledo and Burger did find one area of agreement: Her piece, both said, brings increased attention to the negotiations. Burger said further discussion is not necessarily a problem for Yale. But, he cautioned, “if they miss this opportunity, it will be a tragedy.”

For Karp de Toledo, the current memorandum is a tragedy. Then again, it was under her husband’s presidency that Peru first threatened legal action against Yale.

And Burger said Sunday that legal action becomes more and more possible as time goes on.

“If these negotiations break down,” he said, “we may find ourselves in court. And Yale would do well in a trial.”

Peru’s lead negotiator with Yale, Minister of Health Hernan Garrido-Lecca, and Peru’s lawyer, William Cook of the Washington, D.C. law firm DLA Piper, both declined to comment for this article.

The Lost Treasure of Machu Picchu

By Eliane Karp-Toledo, Stanford, California
February 23, 2008. Source Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times

Hiram Binham 1911

SURE, it seemed like a great idea when, last September, President Alan García of Peru reached a preliminary agreement with Yale about the disposition of more than 350 artifacts taken from Machu Picchu. Everyone hoped the settlement might be a break for cultural understanding in the cloudy skies of international cooperation. News reports suggested that Yale would return more than 350 museum-quality artifacts, plus several thousand fragments thought to be of interest mainly to researchers — all of which were taken from the mountaintop Inca archaeological complex nearly a century ago — and that legal title to all the artifacts, even those to be left at Yale for research, would be held by Peru.

But having finally obtained a copy of the agreement, I can see that Yale continues to deny Peru the right to its cultural patrimony, something Peru has demanded since 1920.

When, in 1912 and 1914-15, the explorer Hiram Bingham III excavated the treasures from Machu Picchu — ceramic vessels, silver statues, jewelry and human bones — and took them from Peru, it was supposed to be a loan for 12 months (a period that was later extended a half-year). The National Geographic Society, which co-sponsored Bingham’s explorations, has acknowledged that the artifacts were taken on loan and is committed to seeing them returned to Peru.

From 2001 to 2006, when my husband, Alejandro Toledo, was president of Peru, I participated in negotiations with Yale over the artifacts. Peru requested the return of everything Bingham had removed from Machu Picchu, and President Toledo, with the support of both the National Geographic Society and Senator Christopher Dodd, of Connecticut, discussed the request directly with the president of Yale, Richard C. Levin. Those talks broke down, however, when Yale refused to accept our first condition: recognition that Peru is the sole owner of the artifacts. The university also would not allow us to conduct an inventory of the pieces, under the pretext that the archaeologist we had selected was not qualified.

The Peruvian ambassador in Washington tried to revive the conversation with Yale, but by early 2006, it was clear that the university was stalling for time. President Toledo left office in July 2006, and a little over a year later, the latest agreement was announced. Fortunately, a final agreement has been delayed.

Under the “memorandum of understanding” between Yale and President García, Peru would promise to build a museum and research center in Cuzco, the city closest to Machu Picchu, where some of the collection would be displayed. Yale would act as adviser for the center, and would also be allowed to select which pieces would be released to the museum. Peru’s sovereign right to the entire collection is not acknowledged, and it is clear that Yale would keep a significant proportion of the materials. Peru would still not be allowed to conduct its own inventory. Only when a museum has been built to Yale’s specifications would even a portion of the materials return, allowing Peruvians to enjoy artifacts they have never seen.

I fail to understand the rationale for Yale to have any historical claim to the artifacts. Bingham had no authority to transfer ownership to begin with. The agreement reflects a colonial way of thinking not expected from a modern academic institution. In fact, Yale has gone a step further than it did in its negotiations with President Toledo; the university is now brazenly asking to keep a significant part of the collection for research for an additional 99 years.

I wonder if it is pure coincidence that Yale delayed negotiations with Mr. Toledo, Peru’s first elected indigenous president, until Peru had a new leader who is frankly hostile to indigenous matters.

Why is it so hard for Yale to let go of these collections after almost a century of loan default? It is time for Peruvian scholars and citizens — especially the indigenous descendants of those who led Bingham to the ancient complex — to have access to the collection. The present agreement should be discarded and new talks should begin, based on the recognition of Peru’s sovereign right to all that was taken from Machu Picchu. Yale must finally return the artifacts that symbolize Peru’s great heritage.

Eliane Karp-Toledo, the former first lady of Peru, is a visiting lecturer at Stanford.

Sept. memo reveals Peru concessions

According to memorandum of understanding, Yale would be free from legal claims on Inca artifacts

February 14, 2008. Source Yale Daily News by Paul Needham, Staff Reporter.


Some previously undisclosed terms of a memorandum of understanding between Yale and the government of Peru over ancient Inca artifacts represent more significant concessions from Peru than were apparent in the summary of the memorandum released last September.

Those concessions — detailed in a copy of the memorandum obtained by the News this week — could be contributing to political disagreement within Peru that has delayed by more than three months a final agreement about the fate of the artifacts, which were excavated from Machu Picchu by Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III almost a century ago.

The memorandum, which was drafted and signed when a delegation from Peru visited New Haven in September, outlines the intention that any future legal action regarding the artifacts will be subject to Connecticut law and adjudicated by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. In perhaps a bolder stroke, the memorandum also dictates that the Peruvian government “shall release Yale from any legal claims to the Materials resulting from prior circumstances.”

The memorandum called for Yale and Peru to finalize within 60 days an agreement providing for the return of the artifacts to Peru, although that deadline passed without any agreement. Since then, the University has been pushing for a final agreement that would resemble the memorandum.

The agreement to pursue any legal claims in Connecticut may be beneficial to Yale, since the University would have an easier time in an American court proceeding than a Peruvian one, said Terry Martin, a professor of international law at Harvard Law School.

The terms have angered some in Peru — among them Eliane Karp de Toledo, Peru’s former first lady, who provided the memorandum to the News. Under the administration of her husband Alejandro Toledo, whose term expired in 2006, Karp de Toledo led the charge to repatriate the artifacts, even threatening Yale with legal action.

But Dorothy Robinson, University general counsel, said the memorandum represents a positive step for all parties involved.

“The [memorandum of understanding] is a win-win-win resolution for the government of Peru, for Yale and for the public,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I am hopeful that the final agreement which it contemplates will be signed very soon.”

The University, for its part, has said since September it is willing to acknowledge Peru’s title to the artifacts. But, in a move that has stirred controversy within Peru, Yale has asked to retain usufructuary rights to some non-museum-quality pieces for up to 99 years.

The question some Peruvians familiar with the negotiations have been asking, then, is what qualifies as a museum-quality piece and what does not. The University gave Yale archaeology professor Richard burger, who co-curated an exhibit of the artifacts at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, the task of classifying the objects. Burger said he recently completed the inventory of the objects but does not know whether Peru’s government had been informed of his findings.

In assessing the pieces, Burger said, he acted in “good faith” and “erred on the side of Peru” by categorizing some pieces as museum quality simply because they are of special value to Peruvians.

Burger, who will curate a traveling exhibit of the artifacts under the terms of the memorandum, acknowledged that one joint consideration in the negotiations is the hope to construct a museum near Machu Picchu to house the pieces returning from the exhibit by 2011, the centennial anniversary of Bingham’s expedition.

But Karp de Toledo, now a lecturer in archaeology at Stanford University, said she is vehemently opposed to the memorandum of understanding, which she called a “bad deal for Peru.”

Specifically, Karp de Toledo took issue with the lack of Peruvian oversight of Burger’s inventory and the continued advisory role Yale will take in both the traveling exhibition and the museum. In addition, she said, while the memorandum notes that Yale has served “as steward of the Materials,” it does not include any concrete statement of thanks from Yale to Peru for having lent the University the artifacts for nearly a century.

The longer the negotiations take, Burger said, the shorter the international exhibition will be and the less time Peru and Yale will have to collaborate on a design for the museum. Such collaboration could definitively end the disagreement, he said.

Burger said he is confident the two camps will reach an agreement similar in content to the memorandum of understanding in the near future.

“One always has to be cautious, but the signs are good,” he said.

But as has historically been the case, Burger noted, political disagreement in Peru remains a roadblock to a final agreement.

“They have to get all their ducks in a row in Peru,” he said. “Once they do that, hopefully they’ll come up here and we’ll finish this.”

The negotiations between Yale and Peru were initially supposed to be completed within 60 days of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, but the two sides have agreed to several extensions that have allowed the parties to continue discussions.

Hernan Garrido-Lecca, Peru’s health minister and lead negotiator with Peru, declined to comment for this article.
 

Peru dispute still unresolved

Peruvian negotiation leader: A deal is ‘something I cannot foresee’ soon.

January 24, 2008. Source Yale Daily News by Paul Needham


Although Machu Picchu has long been referred to as the “Lost City of the Incas,” there’s very little that now seems “lost” about the site that draws over half a million tourists each year.

Except, some Peruvians argue, for the Inca artifacts excavated from the site by Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III between 1911 and 1915 — artifacts which are currently housed at the Peabody Museum. Yale’s possession of these pieces has been a source of controversy in Peru and has sparked repeated attempts at negotiation between the University and the Peruvian government in recent years.

A successful end to the disagreement seemed imminent in September, when representatives from Peru and Yale administrators signed a tentative agreement. But over four months later, there is still no telling when — if at all — the artifacts will be returned to Peru.

The terms of a memorandum of understanding signed by Yale and Peruvian officials visiting New Haven in September has, at once surprisingly and unsurprisingly, escalated political strife within Peru about the rightful ownership of the artifacts.

The political fallout from the tentative agreement has brought further talks between Yale and Peru to a virtual standstill, several sources familiar with the negotiations told the News this week.

Jose Koechlin, a Peruvian tourism entrepreneur who represents Machu Picchu on a task force overseeing the negotiations for Peru, said he does not expect any final deal to be reached in the near future.

“Soon is something I cannot foresee,” Koechlin said. “That a final agreement may be reached is wishful thinking.”

In September, Yale had agreed to recognize Peru’s title to the artifacts and to return most of the objects — and all of the museum-quality pieces — to Peru in short order. In addition, a co-sponsored exhibition of some artifacts was to travel the globe and eventually arrive at a museum near Machu Picchu that Yale would help Peru design. The memorandum gave the parties 60 days to sign a final agreement.

Despite these concessions, some research objects would remain at Yale over the next 99 years, University General Counsel Dorothy Robinson told the News at the time.

This last condition seems to have caused controversy within Peru and, at least in part, led to a 30-day extension to the 60-day deadline that the parties had set in September. But the extended deadline came and went over the winter, and the parties agreed to another extension of an undisclosed length.

Richard Burger, an archaeology professor at Yale who co-curated an exhibit of the artifacts in 2003, said discussions between Yale and Peru are ongoing at this point.

“The two sides are still talking,” Burger said. “We expect [the final agreement] will say something very close to the memorandum of understanding.”

University spokeswoman Helaine Klasky also said in an e-mail that Yale expects an ultimate resolution similar to the terms set forth in September, although Klasky said that “things sometimes happen a little more slowly than anticipated.”

But if Peru’s political opposition gets its way, any agreement with Yale would stipulate that all of the objects be returned to Peru immediately.

The fight over the artifacts came to a head during the tenure of former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo. In an aggressive attempt to claim the objects, Toledo and his wife, Eliane Karp de Toledo, made the return of the Inca artifacts a priority during Toledo’s time in office, but negotiations at the time were hostile and Peru ultimately threatened to sue Yale over the objects.

The administration of current Peruvian president Alan Garcia, himself a former president who succeeded Toledo in 2006, has taken a more amicable approach to the negotiations.

But, under Peruvian law, a president cannot serve more than one consecutive five-year term. Even still, after stepping down, a former president can run for office again once an intermediary term has elapsed.

So, when Garcia’s term expires in 2011, Toledo could run again, a prospect that — given the bold stance his administration took on the subject — is part of the reason for why the artifacts remain on the front burner of Peruvian politics.

Karp de Toledo, herself an anthropologist and the leader of the effort to repatriate the artifacts, said in an interview with the News on Monday that the deal as negotiated in September was unfair to Peru.

“What’s the need for another century of research?” she asked. “This is a bad deal for Peru, and Yale has everything to gain from it. The final agreement should recognize that Peru has all the rights to all the pieces — all the pieces have to go back to Peru.”

Karp de Toledo said Peru can rightfully lay claim to all the objects because Bingham signed an agreement with the Peruvian government in 1912 in which he agreed to the eventual return of the objects. She criticized the Garcia government for letting political considerations trump Peru’s right to all of the objects.

“Garcia just wants a deal for the glory of it,” she said. “But it’s a bad deal for Peru, and it won’t be finished without a fight.”

But Hugh Thomson, a famed explorer and author of “A Sacred Landscape,” a recent book on Peru’s history, said by phone from England that the Peruvian opposition to the memorandum of understanding is surprising given Yale’s acknowledgement of Peru’s title to the objects and readiness to return most — if not all — of the objects in just a few years.

“From the Peruvian point of view, it seems to me that Yale capitulated,” he said.

No matter who is in office and what the terms of a deal, however, the return of the artifacts will remain controversial in Peru, said Barton Lewis, a contributing editor with National Geographic Traveler who has closely followed the story.

“It’s the kind of issue that can make careers,” Lewis said. “If you come off looking like you won — whatever that means — it would be a huge political victory.”

For its part, Yale is waiting for the Peruvian political process to play itself out. Burger said that Yale is eager to finish the negotiations, but the talks have been complicated by Peruvian politics.

“It is going back and forth because we can only control this side,” he said. “We cannot control the Peruvian side.”

But Koechlin, the Peruvian involved with the negotiations, emphasized that the question of ownership of the artifacts is not just a legal one but also a moral one, and it must not be just a political one.

“A legal question can be presented,” he said. “But it’s a question of the spirit of the law, of morality.”

Mariana Mould de Pease, a Peruvian historian who has long advocated for the return of the objects, said the fight will go on in Peru because the memorandum of understanding between Yale and Peru is not based on “historical facts.”

Mould de Pease noted that Peruvians gave Bingham the support he needed to get to Machu Picchu, which had been abandoned for centuries until Bingham brought it onto the world stage. But she added that Bingham had done a great service for Peru as well.

“No Peruvian could communicate Machu Picchu as well as Bingham did,” Mould de Pease said. “So we have to work together; we have to work with Yale.”

The lead negotiators for Peru, Minister of Health Hernan Garrido-Lecca and William Cook, of the Washington, D.C., law firm DLA Piper, both declined comment for this article.
 

Talks with Peru extend past deadline

Despite 90 days of negotiations, Levin is ‘still optimistic’ about eventual accord on Inca artifacts.

December 3, 2007. Source Yale Daily News by Thomas Kaplan and Paul Needham

Bronze knife pendant.
 Image courtesy of Yale Peabody Museum

The University and the government of Peru have agreed to extend negotiations for a second time over the title to a collection of Incan artifacts brought to New Haven nearly a century ago from Machu Picchu by the explorer Hiram Bingham III, Yale officials told the News Sunday.

After years of controversy, Yale and Peru announced Sept. 14 that the two parties had agreed to acknowledge Peru’s title to most of the artifacts in question and that Yale would eventually return most of the collection. At that time, the University and Peru set a 60-day timetable for reaching a final agreement regarding the objects. But 60 days came and went, and the two parties agreed on a 30-day extension, which ended Friday.

Yale officials said last week that it was unlikely an agreement would be reached by Friday because internal issues within Peru had delayed negotiations.

Indeed, no agreement was struck, Yale officials said Sunday night, but declined to comment on the reasons for the extension. Instead, the University and Peru have once again agreed to extend negotiations, Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said. Although Klasky did not indicate the length of the extension, she said the two parties have not abandoned the principles agreed upon in the Sept. 14 announcement.

In an interview Sunday night, Yale President Richard Levin said he remained hopeful that the University would soon reach an agreement with Peru.

“We have more time,” Levin said. “We’re still working, and we’re still optimistic.”

Levin declined to elaborate further.

“Both Yale and the Government of Peru remain committed to the agreement,” Klasky wrote in an e-mail.

Despite recent postponements, both Yale and Peruvian officials said last week that they were nearing an end to their negotiations. Fernando Cantuarias, legal counsel to Peru’s Housing Minister and lead negotiator with Yale Hernan Garrido-Lecca, said Thursday that a final agreement between the two parties would probably be reached within the next two weeks.

Peruvians have long maintained that the objects should be returned to the South American nation. Yale and Peru signaled an end to the long period of tension and recent threats of litigation from Peru this year when the two parties began to negotiate formally.

This development followed last year’s election of Alan Garcia as Peru’s new president and a letter Levin sent to Garcia this spring in which Levin said he emphasized his eagerness to put an end to the long-standing disagreement.

After Garrido-Lecca led a delegation to Yale in September, it seemed that a final agreement was not far off. University General Counsel Dorothy Robinson told the News on Sept. 15 that the two parties would work toward a formal agreement within 60 days.

But despite the enthusiasm from Yale and Peruvian officials after the visit, the original deal has met with some resistance within Peru, Dan Martinez, attache to the American ambassador to Peru, said last week.

“I think once [Garrido-Lecca] returned and announced that this had been agreed to and the terms became public knowledge, some in the local community had questions and concerns about some of those provisions,” Martinez said.

Garrido-Lecca, his legal counsel Fernando Cantuarias and Martinez could not be reached for comment from Peru on Sunday night.

Archaeology professor Richard Burger, the co-curator of a show at the Peabody Museum in 2003 that featured many of the artifacts, said Thursday that Yale is willing to return almost all of the museum-quality pieces in the collection.

An undetermined number of fragmented pieces will remain at Yale for 99 years, Robinson said in September. Burger said Thursday that it is important for these pieces to stay at Yale for further research and as a testament to Yale’s long-standing connection with the objects.

According to the September statement, Yale would also co-sponsor an exhibition of the objects that would travel globally and help Peru develop plans for a museum to showcase the objects near Machu Picchu.

Burger told the News last week that one reason for the delay in the negotiations could have been the damage caused by an August earthquake in Peru.

Garrido-Lecca, as the nation’s housing minister, has had to spend much of his time focusing on rebuilding his nation, Burger said.
 

Yale To Return Incan Artifacts

Agreement With Government Of Peru includes materials excavated by History Professor In 1912.
THE GOVERNMENT OF PERU and Yale University in New Haven have settled a dispute over the return of artifacts taken from Peru in 1912.

September 16, 2007. Source Courant.com by Edmund H. Mahony, Courant Staff Writer

Yale University has agreed to return to the government of Peru some of the artifacts and human remains that one of its professors removed from the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu nearly 100 years ago.

The agreement, disclosed in a joint statement by Yale and Peru late Friday night, appears to settle a long-standing dispute between the two. Peru had threatened to sue Yale to recover 300 museum-quality pieces - including skeletons, ceramic pots and jewelry - but the threat was withdrawn over the summer as negotiations progressed over return of the items.

The statement did not specify precisely what will be returned to Peru, but it suggests Yale will give up a substantial portion of the collection, which has been housed in a campus museum. Representatives of Yale and the government of Peru could not be reached Saturday.

The statement said that the government of Peru and Yale had agreed on "a new conceptual framework for collaboration, with a focus on Machu Picchu." The agreement reportedly will encompass not only the materials excavated by Yale history Professor Hiram Bingham in 1912, but other areas of research, such as the plants and wildlife in a national park surrounding the ancient Andean city.

Peru and Yale said they have agreed to jointly sponsor a traveling international exhibition that will feature objects obtained by Bingham during expeditions to Machu Picchu and the Peruvian city of Cuzco, as well as dioramas and multimedia materials developed by the school. Peru will contribute pieces to the traveling exhibition, according to the statement.

In addition, Peru said it will build a new museum and research center in Cuzco. Yale will advise Peru on the center, which will become the home of the traveling exhibition when completed, probably in late 2009.

The statement said that Yale will acknowledge Peru's title to all the excavated objects including the fragments, bones and specimens from Machu Picchu. But it said Yale will share rights with Peru in what was described in the statement as the research collection, part of which will remain at Yale as an object of continuing study.

Once Peru's new museum and research center opens, the statement said, museum quality objects in Yale's possession will return to Peru along with a portion of the research collection.

"This understanding represents a new model of international cooperation providing for the collaborative stewardship of cultural and natural treasures," the statement said.

Machu Picchu was built by Incan emperor Pachacutec in the mid-15th century, at the height of the empire. The stone citadel sits 8,000 feet above sea level and overlooks a forest 345 miles southeast of Lima.

The Incas ruled Peru from the 1430s until the arrival of the Spaniards in 1532, constructing incredible stone-block cities and roads and developing a highly organized society that extended from modern-day Colombia to Chile.

Spanish conquistadors are believed to have found an abandoned Machu Picchu during their conquest of the Incan empire in the middle 1500s. Bingham is believed to have rediscovered it in 1911. The reconstructed ruins at Machu Picchu are now Peru's top tourist attraction.

The find by Bingham, a colorful adventurer who bushwhacked paths across Central and South America, brought the mysteries of the apparently lost Incan civilization to the attention of the Western world. Bingham promised to return to Peru any artifacts he took back to New Haven for study, but not everything made its way back.

Peru began to press for the return of its artifacts - part of its patrimony - in 2001. But in 2005, after unsuccessful negotiations, the administration of then-Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo threatened to sue. Current President Alan Garcia took office before a suit was filed and continued the talks that resulted in the agreement.

For years, Bingham's collection languished in storage at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. It was rediscovered by the husband-and-wife anthropology team of Richard Burger and Lucy Salazar, who put it in a traveling exhibit called "Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas." The exhibition returned permanently to New Haven in 2005, just as the school's dispute with Peru was coming to a head.

Contact Edmund H. Mahony at emahony@courant.com .

Yale to return Machu Picchu artifacts

LIMA, Peru - Yale University has agreed to return thousands of Inca artifacts taken from Peru's famed Machu Picchu citadel almost a century ago, the government said Saturday.

September 16, 2007. Source Yahoo News

"Finally it has been established that Peru is the owner of each one of the pieces," Housing Minister Hernan Garrido Lecca, who led negotiations with Yale, told Lima's Radioprogramas radio.

The New Haven, Connecticut-based university said in a statement on its Web site that some of the pieces will remain there temporarily for research, but did not specify how many.

Peru demanded the collection back last year, saying it never relinquished ownership when Yale scholar Hiram Bingham III rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911. All told he exported more than 4,000 artifacts including mummies, ceramics and bones from what has become one of the world's most famous archaeological sites.

Yale responded with a proposal to split the collection. Negotiations broke down, and Peru threatened a lawsuit.

Under the agreement, Yale and Peru will co-sponsor first a traveling expedition featuring Bingham's pieces and later a museum in the Andean city of Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital.

"This understanding represents a new model of international cooperation providing for the collaborative stewardship of cultural and natural treasures," Yale said in the statement.

The ruins at Machu Picchu, located on a mountaintop above a lush valley southeast of Lima, are Peru's top tourist attraction.

Yale University Agrees to Return Machu Picchu Artifacts to Peru

Yale University, the third-oldest U.S. college, agreed to return to the government of Peru some of the artifacts archeologist and Professor Hiram Bingham excavated from Machu Picchu almost a century ago.

September 15, 2007. Source Bloomberg.com by Kelly Riddell and Brian K. Sullivan

Silver shawl pin.
Image courtesy of Yale Peabody Museum

Last year, Peru threatened to sue Yale for the 300 museum- quality pieces, consisting of skeletons, ceramic pots and jewelry, dug up from the Incan city in the Andes between 1911 and 1916. Peru said Bingham excavated the land knowing the items he took were on temporary loan and ``would be returned.''

Under a collaboration announced today, Peru and Yale will co-sponsor an exhibition featuring Bingham's artifacts that will travel internationally. A new museum will also be built in Peru where the artifacts will reside after their world tour.

``This understanding represents a new model of international cooperation providing for the collaborative stewardship of cultural and national treasures,'' Yale and Peru said in a joint statement on the Ivy League university's Web site.

Yale had displayed the antiquities at its Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It had previously offered to set up parallel collections at Yale and at a museum to be built in Peru, a proposal the government rejected last year.

Stone Citadel

Peru's museum is scheduled to open in 2009 and coincide with the centennial celebration of Bingham's rediscovery of Machu Picchu. Select artifacts will remain at Yale for further research, the two groups said.

Machu Picchu was built by Incan emperor Pachacutec in the mid-15th century, at the height of the empire. The stone citadel, which lies at an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,438 meters), overlooks a forest 345 miles (552.2 kilometers) southeast of Lima.

Spanish soldiers are said to have discovered the abandoned site shortly after the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532. The site lay forgotten and covered by jungle vegetation for the next four centuries until Bingham rediscovered it in 1911.

The question of ownership over artifacts brought back to U.S. campuses has been a thorny one.

Recently, Harvard reached an agreement with Russia to return bells taken from that country in 1930.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kelly Riddell in Washington at Kriddell1@bloomberg.net  ; Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net

Peru: Breakthrough on Machu Picchu items

NEW HAVEN - Yale has agreed to turn over to Peru an inventory of artifacts that explorer Hiram Bingham III carted back with him to New Haven after excavating Machu Picchu, the "lost" city of the Incas, in the Andean mountains nearly a century ago.

August 14, 2007. Source The Hartford Courant by Kim Martineau

Ritual offering vessel or "paccha."
Image courtesy of Yale Peabody Museum

The breakthrough, which may ultimately help decide who gets to keep the ancient Incan artifacts, was reached this summer under Peru's new president, who appears willing to settle the dispute without resorting to the lawsuit threatened by his predecessor.

Peru's housing minister is expected to lead a delegation of Peruvians to New Haven next month to continue talks with Yale.

"Why should we pursue a lawsuit?" said Vladimír Kocerha, a spokesman for the Peruvian Embassy in Washington, D.C. "Things are progressing. We are talking to them. They are talking to us."

At stake are about 300 museum-quality pieces - skeletons, ceramic pots and jewelry - that Bingham dug up on his historic expedition to Machu Picchu in 1912. The trove awakened the Western world to the wonders of an ancient, highly advanced civilization. A history professor at Yale, Bingham promised to ship his Incan finds back to Peru when he was done studying them, but not all the objects came home as promised.

Peru began to press for the return of its artifacts - a symbol of national identity and pride - after Alejandro Toledo, Peru's first ethnically indigenous president, took office in 2001. For years, Toledo's administration negotiated with Yale but as the end of his term approached in late 2005 Peru threatened to sue, evoking the shameful legacy of European colonial rule in South America. Peru's current president, Alan Garcia, took office last summer before any legal papers were filed.

This spring, Yale President Richard Levin wrote to Garcia suggesting they find a compromise. The response was encouraging. In early June, Garcia appointed his housing minister, Hernán Garrido-Lecca, a Harvard-educated investment banker, to handle the matter.

Later that month Yale's chief counsel visited Peru and Yale agreed to prepare an inventory of the items Bingham excavated. The list should be ready to share with Peru by the end of the year, said Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman.

Though Yale repeatedly offered to show the artifacts jointly with Peru, Yale refused to acknowledge that Peru had full ownership, fearing restrictions that would be placed on research on the bones and other material, the New York Times has reported. The National Geographic Society, which funded Bingham's 1912 expedition, remains firmly on Peru's side in demanding the repatriation of the artifacts.

Most of Bingham's finds were languishing in storage at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History until they were rediscovered by a husband-and-wife anthropology team at the university, Richard Burger and Lucy Salazar. The couple put together a traveling exhibit, "Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas," that came home to New Haven permanently in 2005, just as the dispute with Peru was coming to a head.

A new solution proposed by Yale would put the exhibition back on the road to raise money to build a museum in Cuzco, former capital of the Inca Empire. Yale would then transfer the artifacts there permanently, while maintaining rights to do research on lesser-quality pieces, the New York Times Magazine reported in June. Yale declined to elaborate on that possibility on Monday.
 

Peru: Breakthrough on Machu Picchu items

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- Yale University will for the first time provide Peru with an inventory of thousands of artifacts taken from Machu Picchu 90 years ago, Peruvian officials said Thursday, as they work to have the objects returned.

August 10, 2007. Source Reuters

Bone shawl pin adorned with two birds
Image courtesy of Yale Peabody Museum

The ruins of Peru's famed Machu Picchu were named last month as one of the new seven wonders of the world.

Negotiations over who owns more than 4,000 pieces of pottery, jewelry and bones from the ancient Inca citadel had stalled are were now progressing, officials said.

"The relationship is moving forward like never before, towards an understanding," said Cecilia Bakula, head of Peru's national institute of culture.

"This has allowed, among other things, for Yale to commit itself to providing a complete inventory of its archeological goods for the first time."

Yale officials declined to comment.

Bakula spoke at an event with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, who visited Lima to say the United States was returning 350 pre-Colombian artifacts to Peru. The artifacts were recovered in Miami under an anti-smuggling accord between the two countries.

Hughes said she supported the talks between Yale and Peru, which have occurred as museums around the world face demands by countries from Peru to Greece and Egypt to return ancient treasures.

"We are delighted these conversations have taken place and we hope they can be resolved in a satisfactory manner that takes into account the interests of both sides," Hughes said.

Peru says the artifacts were lent to Yale for 18 months. But the university has kept them ever since one of its alumni, U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, rediscovered Machu Picchu in the Andes in 1911.
 

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