Although some of the reviews of it haven’t been that great, the film Monuments Men has done an amazing job of raising awareness for the issue of disputed artefacts.

In this article, Chika Ezeanya looks at the many African Artefacts that have ended up in the museums & institutions of the West.

A series of African sculptures in the Yale collection

From:
Think Africa Press

It’s Time for Africa’s Stolen Artefacts to Come Home
Africa’s history has for too long laid scattered across Western museums and private collections, out of the reach of their true owners’ hearts, minds and memories.
Article | 4 April 2014 – 11:33am | By Chika Ezeanya

In a recently-released film, The Monuments Men, in which a group of Second World War soldiers embark upon a mission to save pieces of art before they are destroyed by the Nazis, Lieutenant Frank Stokes, played by George Clooney, notes: “You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they will still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, if you destroy their achievements, then it is as if they never existed.”

While in London to publicise the film, this basic premise was given contemporary significance as the all-star cast touched a sensitive nerve by suggesting it was time for Britain to return the so-called Elgin Marbles to Greece. Some British commentators hit out at the actors’ suggestions of repatriating the huge marble sculptures and pieces of architecture ‘acquired’ by Lord Elgin from Athens in the 19th century, while the Greek government expressed their “heartfelt thanks” for the show of solidarity.
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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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An interesting look at 10 different cases (some well known, some more obscure) where countries are involved in disputes over the ownership of looted cultural property. Some of the cases have been resolved, but many are still no closer to reaching a conclusion than the day after the artefacts were originally taken.

From:
Business Insider

10 Ancient Artifacts That Countries Are Still Fighting Over
Vivian Giang | Jul. 14, 2011, 7:51 PM

Legendary historical artifacts have traded hands from conquerors to thieves and ended up thousands of miles from their origin.

The question of ownership is extremely murky.

With a black market in looted art worth as much as $6.3 billion a year, the mantra of “finder’s keepers” can be tempting. Past and present owners, however, may claim an object, sometimes leading to disputes and wars between nations.
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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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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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More coverage of the deal reached between the government of Peru & Yale University for the return of various artefacts from Machu Picchu.

From:
Realclearworld

December 08, 2010
Peru president says Yale to return Inca artifacts
Carla Salazar

Peru’s president announced Friday that Yale University has agreed to return thousands of artifacts taken away from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.

The university issued a statement a few hours later expressing satisfaction at the results of its talks with Peru. The artifacts had been at the center of a bitter dispute for years, with Peru filing a lawsuit in U.S. court against the school.
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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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After resorting to numerous ways to increase pressure on Yale University, it now looks as though Peru’s attempts to secure the return of artefacts may have been successful. It is worth bearing in mind though that agreements such as this can fall though for man reasons. Previously Yale agreed to return the same artefacts in 2007, but this never went ahead and the reasons given tend to vary depending on which side you speak to.

From:
Bloomberg News

Yale to Return Incan Artifacts Taken a Century Ago, Peru’s President Says
By John Quigley – Nov 20, 2010 5:15 PM GMT

Yale University, the third-oldest U.S. college, has agreed to return Incan artifacts taken from Peru a century ago, President Alan Garcia said.

Ernesto Zedillo, a Yale professor and a former Mexican president, promised yesterday to return the artifacts, which were excavated by archaeologist and Yale Professor Hiram Bingham from the Machu Picchu citadel in the southern Andes in 1912, Garcia said in statement dated yesterday and posted on the presidential website.
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Twenty three Yale alumni who live in Peru have written to the University, urging the return of various disputed artefacts held by the University.

From:
Yale Daily News

Alumni demand artifacts’ return
By Drew Henderson – Staff Reporter
Monday, October 18, 2010

Yale’s reluctance to return a trove of artifacts to Peru undermines the University’s efforts to build partnerships abroad, 23 alumni who reside in Peru wrote in a letter to University President Richard Levin last month.

The authors of the letter represent the majority of the 43 alumni living in Peru, Susan Rolfe ’89 said. Rolfe has lived in Peru since 1994, and now coordinates the local Yale Alumni Association. The letter urges Levin to hasten the return of the artifacts and resolve the lawsuit currently pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
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