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Yale University and Peru Agree on Thousands of Machu Picchu Artifacts

(LIP-ir) -- In an event held to extend a Heritage Protection Agreement between the U.S. and Peru, it was announced that important and exceptional progress has been made with the U.S. university of Yale involving thousands of artifacts taken from Peru's Machu Picchu almost 100 years ago.

Peru's Director of the National Institute of Culture (INC), Dr. Cecilia Bákula, announced that a diplomatic team from Peru was to visit Yale University to clarify and resolve the issue.

The team is to be headed by Hernán Garrido Lecca, who will go and settle an Agreement of Understanding with the U.S. university.

Bákula also announced that Yale University will, for the first time, give an inventory of the thousands of pieces they possess.

The artifacts were taken, with Peru's approval, by U.S. explorer and Yale alumni Hiram Bingham, who rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911. According to Peruvian officials the artifacts were lent to Yale University so they could be studied and on the condition that they would be returned after a short time.

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# vaballathus says :
11 August, 2007 [ 02:29 ]

To be fair you should mention that Peru couldn't have care less about this artificats back in 1911 and that if Yale hadn't taken care of them and preserved them they wouldn't even exist today....

# Joe says :
11 August, 2007 [ 11:50 ]

Well in that case Vaballathus, lend me your car for a while.  I'll take good care of it.  I promise

# Albert says :
11 August, 2007 [ 17:18 ]

So what you are suggesting, Vaballathus, is that Peru is incapable of taking care of its own heritage. I don't know what evidence you have to make that assumption.

The fact of the matter now is that the artifacts DO NOT belong to Yale Universtiy. If the owner wants them back, then give them back.

By the way, can I borrow your car?

# Sally says :
12 August, 2007 [ 12:02 ]

   Perhaps Vaballathus was considering such evidence as the failure even in modern times to protect ruins from being looted by Peruvians -- for example, the Huaca Rajada pyramids plundered in 1987,  the Chachapoya burial sites in 1996, the Puruchuco cemetery under Tupac Amaru in the 1980's and 1990's. 
   Peru may be currently capable of taking care of its own heritage.  But in 1911,  it didn't.  If Peruvian law at the time permitted Bingham to become the owner, Yale has acted responsibly. 

# joe says :
12 August, 2007 [ 20:56 ]

Silly Sally... How can you say Yale acted responsibly when Peru has historically claimed that said artifacts were lent to Bingham only for the length of his investigations? 

It's this simple: Yale acts responsibly = Peru gets artifacts back after period of investigation.  Yale acts irresponsibly = Peru doesn't get artifacts back. 

It is not Yale's place, nor any one else's, to determine whether or not Peru is (was) capable of taking care of it's heritage.

Here's another example... I borrow your car for 2 weeks.  After two weeks, I decide to keep it because I determine that you are incapable of caring for the automobile.  Ridiculous isn't it?  But somehow, that's what you are justifying.  It's wrong any way you slice it.

# Sally says :
13 August, 2007 [ 11:40 ]

   I said IF the law permitted Bingham to become the owner, Yale has acted responsibly  -- taking care of them as opposed to selling them on the black market or destroying them as grave-robbers have done.

   The important condition is who is the owner.  If you donate something to my museum and under the law of the time, that makes me the owner, you can't turn back the clock ninety years later and demand the return of the item.  
   If, on the other hand, you can show that (1) the law was different or (2) it was not a donation, rather it was stolen (or kept beyond the term of a loan), it's a different scenario.  

    Vaballathus' comment is still pertinent.  Stolen antiquities and artifacts fall into a special category of laws and recovery practicalities, not to be confused with cars. 
     

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