Lost. Found. Loaned?
"To visit Machupijchu, you must prepare the soul, sharpen the sense. Forget for some minutes, the small and transcendental problems of our lives, of modern man..." Napoleon Polo, Cuzco Peru.
In 1911, Yale history professor Hiram Bingham III stumbled upon Machu Picchu, 'the lost city of the Incas' (click here for an incredible virtual tour). For centuries, the treasure trove of ancient Incan art and artifacts had been lost to the Peruvian people. Backed by Yale and the National Geographic Society, Bingham excavated nearly 5,000 objects over the course of several trips to the sacred site, including statues, jewellery, instruments and human remains. He then sent the relics to Yale's Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut.
Was their transfer a loan or a gift?
In 2003, when Yale launched a major touring exhibition featuring the artifacts, the Peruvian government commenced negotiations to get them back. Their argument rested on the existence of a letter discovered in the National Geographic Society archives by Terry Garcia, executive VP of the Society. The letter, written by Bingham to Yale University, revealed that the artifacts "do not belong to us, but to the Peruvian government, who allowed us to take them out of the country on the condition that they be returned in eighteen months." The National Geographic Society concluded that the artifacts that had been removed from Machu Picchu were indeed a loan from the Peruvian government, and not a gift.
Artifact ownership is a sticky issue. Thomas Kline, of George Washington University explained to the National Geographic Channel that if a museum returns ancient artifacts too quickly, they may not be honouring their duty to "preserve and protect objects in the collection".
Yale and the Peruvian government ultimately worked out a compromise of sorts. Yale agreed to return most of the objects following the completion of the travelling exhibition co-sponsored by the two parties, and has since acknowledged Peru's title to all of the excavated objects.
