Two years after the agreement to return artefacts was made, and many years after Peru first started petitioning for their return, the final artefacts from Yale University’s Peabody Museum have returned to Machu Picchu. These final artefacts form the last part of an extensive restitution process of over 35,000 items that has been happening over the last year an a half.

From:
BBC News

13 November 2012 Last updated at 03:05
United States returns to Peru last Machu Picchu artefacts

The last of the artefacts taken from Machu Picchu by American archaeologist who rediscovered the Inca citadel have been returned to Peru.

More than 35,000 pottery fragments and other pieces were flown from Yale University to the Andean city of Cusco.
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After many years of campaigning, false starts & re-iterated demands, agreements were finally reached between Yale University & the Peruvian government for the return of various disputed artefacts collected by Hiram Bingham. These have been gradually been arriving back in Cusco.

From:
NPR

Finders Not Keepers: Yale Returns Artifacts To Peru
by Diane Orson
January 1, 2012 from WNPR

High in the Andes Mountains, Peruvians have been lining up to see a collection of antiquities that have finally returned home. The objects from the Inca site of Machu Picchu spent the past 100 years at Yale University in Connecticut, where they were at the center of a long-running international custody battle.

Now, the university is giving back thousands of ceramics, jewelry and human bones from the Peabody Museum in New Haven to the International Center for the Study of Machu Picchu and Inca Culture.
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More coverage of the return of artefacts to Peru by Yale University.

From:
Fox News

Antiquities from Yale’s Collection Arrive in Peru’s Highlands
Published June 23, 2011
EFE

Lima – A first batch of 350 artifacts removed from Machu Picchu and held by Yale University for almost 100 years have been returned to the highland Peruvian city of Cuzco, ancient capital of the Inca empire.

The arrival of the pieces on Wednesday ended a long custody battle over the antiquities, which left Peru on loan in the early 20th century. It also marked the start of festivities in Cuzco to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the “discovery” of the famed Inca citadel by U.S. academic and explorer Hiram Bingham.
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A few weeks ago, France announced that they would return various Māori heads taken from New Zealand. This article looks at some of the other well-known disputes over artefacts.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Famous disputes over ownership of ancient artefacts
10:30AM BST 09 May 2011

Elgin Marbles

France has agreed to return more than one dozen Maori heads taken from new Zealand more than a century ago. Here are some other ongoing disputes between nations over prized ancient artefacts:

Probably the most famous, and one of the longest running, disputes over ownership of ancient artefacts is the battle between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles.
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Following Peru’s agreement with Yale University, the first of the returned artefacts have now arrived in the country.

From:
BBC News

31 March 2011 Last updated at 00:56
Peru welcomes back Inca artefacts from Yale University

Peru has given a lavish welcome to hundreds of Inca artefacts returned by Yale University in the US, nearly a century after they were taken from the famed citadel of Machu Picchu.

A convoy of trucks escorted by police carried the remains from the airport to the presidential palace in Lima.
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An in-depth article in three parts, looking at the decision made by Yale University to return Inca artefacts to Peru.

From:
Yale Daily News

Returning to Machu Picchu
Yale and Peru
By Sarah Nutman
Senior Reporter
Monday, February 14, 2011

This is a three-part series exploring Yale’s decision to return artifacts from Machu Picchu to Peru: the history behind it, the negotiations leading up to it, and its ramifications. Part 1 investigates the century-long conflict between the University and Peru over the artifacts, which Hiram Bingham III 1898 brought to Yale nearly 100 years ago. (Read part 2 and part 3.)

The corner of Room 188 in building A21 on Yale University’s West Campus is filled with crates marked “fragile” and destined for Peru. Over the next weeks and months, between now and the end of 2012, thousands of objects excavated from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago will be carefully packed. In March, the first set of objects will be shipped by plane to Lima. By July 24, the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham’s III 1898 arrival at Machu Picchu they will be in Cusco, capital of the former Inca empire, and the waypoint for travelers headed to the great citadel.
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More coverage of Yale University’s decision to return various artefacts to Peru, from the Peabody Museum

From:
Sciencemag

Yale Agrees to Return Machu Picchu Artifacts to Peru
by Antonio Regalado on 14 February 2011, 2:51 PM

Ending a bitter dispute over the repatriation of archeological artifacts, Yale University will return to Peru thousands of items excavated from Machu Picchu by 20th Century explorer Hiram Bingham, the university said in a statement.

Peru has been demanding the return of the artifacts for several years. It had sued the university, and last November Peruvian President Alan Garcia led a protest march through Lima, calling Yale’s refusal to return the artifacts a “global crime.”
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More coverage of Yale University’s decision to return artefacts to Peru.

From:
Economist

Homeward bound
An agreement to return Inca treasures
Peru’s archaeological heritage
Nov 25th 2010 | Lima | from PRINT EDITION

A CENTURY ago Hiram Bingham, an American explorer backed by Yale University, hacked his way across jungle-clad mountains and came across the ruins of the fabled Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, hitherto known only to local farmers. He later returned to excavate the site. He packed up some 46,000 exhibits, ranging from ceramics to metalwork and human bones, and shipped them back to Yale for analysis and display. Their export had the permission of Peru’s president of the day, but was supposed to be temporary. Instead the exhibits have remained at Yale ever since, something which has recently irritated Peruvians.

Alan García, Peru’s president since 2006, has continued a campaign launched by his predecessor, Alejandro Toledo, to persuade the university to return the pieces. With an eye to achieving this in time for the centenary next July of Bingham’s first expedition, Mr García recently led a protest march in Lima, Peru’s capital, and published a letter he sent to Barack Obama asking him to intercede in the case.
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A new museum is being created in a manor house in Cusco to house the Inca artefacts that are being returned to Peru by Yale University. The artefacts will begin to be displayed in July 2011, marking the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the ancient citadel of Machu Picchu by explorer Hiram Bingham.

From:
Archnews

New Museum to House Inca Archaeological Pieces Returned By Yale University
By Stephen 16/12/2010 18:01:00

The Casa Concha, a manor house in the heart of Cusco, will house the archaeological pieces soon to be returned by Yale University

The objects will be on display from July 2011 which marks the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham’s scientific discovery of the Inca citadel.
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Students at Peru’s University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco are proud that their university has been selected as the destination to house the Inca artefacts once they are returned by Yale University.

From:
Wide PR

December 08, 2010
Escaped to Peru
Cusco Students Approve of Inca Artifacts Deal With Yale

Peru has improved since the signing of a deal between Yale University and the Peruvian Government for the return of Inca artifacts from Machu Picchu.
Students in the Andean city of Cusco, Peru feel that the American University of Yale has responded well to their protests for the return of around 40 thousand artifacts. The artifacts were removed from the famous archaeological site of Machu Picchu in the 1920’s.

The associated press recently announced that a tentative deal had been agreed between Yale and the Peruvian Government for a return of all artifacts.
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More details are now emerging of the exact details of the settlement reached between Peru & Yale University. It is planned that the first artefacts will return to Peru in early 2011.

From:
Yale Daily News

Peruvian settlement stands apart
By Drew Henderson
Staff Reporter
Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Incan artifacts held at Yale for nearly a century will soon travel back to their native home of Peru, but experts said their return journey is unlikely to spark a domino effect in museums around the world.

According to last week’s memorandum of understanding between Yale and Peru, all of the Incan artifacts held at the University will be returned to Peru by the end of 2012. The dispute has been compared to others about artifacts held in museums far from their place of origin, but sources said the case of the Incan artifacts at Yale is one step in a slow trend of cultural repatriation rather than a dramatic shift in the global debate over where the world’s cultural treasures belong.
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More coverage of the decision by Yale University to return the disputed artefacts from Machu Picchu currently held by the Peabody Museum, to Peru.

From:
Yale Daily News

Yale to return Peruvian artifacts
Online Exclusive
By Drew Henderson
Sunday, November 21, 2010

UPDATED SUNDAY 11:59 p.m. Yale and Peru are formalizing an agreement to return Inca artifacts found by Hiram Bingham III 1898 to Peru, according to a statement released Sunday night by the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications.

The relics will all ultimately be returned to Peru, University President Richard Levin said in a Saturday interview. They will be returned over the next two years, with those most suitable for museum display being returned in time for the centenary of Bingham’s scientific discovery of Machu Picchu in July 2011, the statement said.
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