Peru plans to sue Yale over artifacts taken from Machu Picchu in 1900s
Rick Vecchio, Associated Press

Last update: November 30, 2005 at 7:48 PM
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LIMA, PERU - Peru is preparing a lawsuit against Yale University to retrieve artifacts taken nearly a century ago from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a government official said Wednesday.

Peru has held talks in recent years with Yale seeking the return of nearly 5,000 artifacts, including ceramics and human bones that explorer Hiram Bingham dug up during expeditions to Machu Picchu in 1911, 1912 and 1914.

"Yale considers the collection university property, given the amount of time it has been there," said Luis Guillermo Lumbreras, chief of Peru´s National Institute of Culture. "This is something we do not recognize because the pieces were legally granted in a temporary loan." He said the artifacts "should have been returned after Jan. 27, 1916."

Peru´s Foreign Ministry was preparing the legal case and probably would present it in Connecticut state court, Lumbreras said. He said it was not clear when the lawsuit would be filed.

Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said he was looking into Peru´s claim that the artifacts were on loan.

Lumbreras said "it is time to return the collection" with the approaching 100th anniversary of the scientific anniversary of Machu Picchu.

David Bingham, grandson of Hiram Bingham, said he never heard of any promise to return the artifacts. He said Yale has been a good caretaker and "probably brought more visitors to Peru than almost any other thing." But he said there´s no reason Yale and Peru shouldn´t be able compromise and have displays in both places.

The Incas ruled Peru from the 1430s until the arrival of the Spaniards in 1532. Experts say Machu Picchu was a summer estate for royalty, a sort of Camp David for the Inca ruler Pachacuti.


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Now it appears as if Yale rules Peru.