Yale And Peru Sign Tentative Agreement To Return Machu Picchu Artifacts

Yale University and the government of Peru have signed a tentative agreement to end a long-standing dispute over a collection of ancient artifacts from the Incan site of Machu Picchu.  Peruvian officials say direct involvement by Yale’s president was key to the negotiation’s success.

Yale will return to Peru thousands of objects - jewelry, ceramics and human bones - that were excavated by explorer Hiram Bingham and shipped to New Haven nearly a century ago.  The objects were allowed to leave the country on loan and were to be returned upon Peru’s request. Periodically over the years, Peru has renewed its call for the artifacts’ to get the objects back.  Demands escalated about 8 years ago..and when a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding fell through,  Peru filed a federal lawsuit against Yale to get the objects back. 

Several weeks ago, University president Richard Levin decided to re-open negotiations. He sent a delegation to Peru, led by Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico and head of Yale’s Globalization center.  Last week a revised MOU was signed by Levin and Peruvian foreign minister Jose Garcia Belaunde.  Speaking from Lima, Belaunde says Levin’s involvement was critical. "It is the first time that we have contact with the president of the university. Before that we have been negotiating with lawyers and officers of the university."

The MOU comes on the heels of an aggressive media campaign by the Peruvian government aimed at drawing attention to the artifact dispute. Museum quality objects will be back in Peru in time for next year’s centennial celebrations marking Bingham’s first expedition to Machu Picchu.

For WNPR, I'm Diane Orson.