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<h3>Peru calls for return of artifacts<br>
In ‘counterproposal,’ Peruvian leaders push for immediate return of all
Inca objects</h3>
<div class="meta">
<div class="author"><a linkindex="59"
href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/authors/view/1804">Paul Needham</a></div>
<div class="title">Staff Reporter</div>
<div class="published">Published <span>Thursday, April 17, 2008</span></div>
</div>
<br>
In a distinct
change in position, Peruvian officials announced Wednesday that they
are now seeking the prompt return of all the Inca artifacts currently
housed at Yale.
<div class="storybody" id="storybody">
<p>For over six months, both Yale and Peruvian government
representatives have maintained that any final agreement between the
parties would closely resemble a memorandum of understanding signed in
New Haven in September. But a provision in the memorandum that
stipulated that some artifacts would remain at Yale for up to 99 years
is no longer acceptable to Peru, government officials told the News on
Wednesday.
</p>
<p>Instead, while Peruvian authorities continue to cite an interest in
a <b><a set="yes" linkindex="60"
href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/Research">research</a></b>
collaboration with Yale, they said they would like that interaction to
begin after the artifacts return to Peru.
</p>
<p>The pieces have been at Yale for just under a century; Yale
explorer Hiram Bingham III excavated them from Machu Picchu between
1911 and 1915, and they have remained at the <b><a linkindex="61"
href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/Peabody">Peabody</a></b>
Museum of Natural History ever since.
</p>
<p>If <b><a linkindex="62"
href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/Peru">Peru</a></b> has
its way, though, the objects will soon leave Yale.
</p>
<p>“Peru is making a counterproposal to Yale to have all of the
over 46,000 pieces sent to Peru,” said Vladimir Kocerha, a spokesman
for the Peruvian government. “There will also be an agreement between
Peru and Yale by which Peru then temporarily returns to Yale some
pieces to be studied.”
</p>
<p>William Cook, who represents Peru in the negotiations and is a
lawyer with the Washington, D.C., law firm DLA Piper, said in a phone
interview Wednesday night that the Peruvian government made its stance
clear in a letter to the University last week. He declined to elaborate
on the proposal’s contents, pending a response from Yale.
</p>
<p>University <b><a linkindex="63"
href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/General%20Counsel">General
Counsel</a></b>
Dorothy Robinson could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. But
in an e-mail to the News on Monday, she confirmed receipt of the letter
from Peru and said she remains optimistic that the negotiations will
yield an “amicable resolution.”
</p>
<p>“We are reviewing the document sent to us,” Robinson said.
“[The memorandum] is a balanced solution that creates a collaboration.
It was agreed to by both sides and should continue to guide the
outcome.”
</p>
<p>The memorandum called for a final agreement to be completed
within 60 days. But over half-year since it was signed, there are still
no clear signs that the nearly century-long dispute will end any time
soon.
</p>
<p>Peru’s lead negotiator, Minister of Health Hernan
Garrido-Lecca, signed that memorandum on Sept. 14 of last year. But in
a press conference in Peru and written statement to the News on
Wednesday outlining the country’s new position, Garrido-Lecca showed
just how much has changed since his visit to Yale in the fall.
</p>
<p>Yale officials have long said that political strife in Peru has
stalled the final agreement. And it was that political pressure that in
part spurred the change in Peru’s stance in the negotiations, according
to a Peruvian official familiar with the negotiations who declined to
be named because of confidentiality restrictions.
</p>
<p>“There’s been a lot of pressure in Peru about this issue
recently,” the official said. “So of course, the government is going to
respond.”
</p>
<p>Perhaps the most prominent opponent to the memorandum was
Eliane Karp de Toledo, the former first lady of Peru who in February
penned a piece in The New York Times condemning the memorandum’s terms.
</p>
<p>In a testament to her strong feelings on the issue, Karp de
Toledo said in a Wednesday interview that the new Peruvian position
does not go far enough in spelling out Peru’s rights.
</p>
<p>“It’s a big change, absolutely,” she said. “But it’s not
enough. Condition number one has to be the immediate recognition of
Peru’s claim to all the property and the immediate return of it all.”
</p>
<p>“All the property” is a phrase that would normally not be
controversial. But since the Peruvian government announced the findings
of a March inventory it conducted of the objects on a visit to Yale,
the size of the collection has been the focus of much scrutiny.
</p>
<p>On Sunday, Garrido-Lecca said Peru found over 40,000 pieces at
Yale. Wednesday, that number was more precise: 46,332. The number of
lots — or groups of artifacts — in the collection, according to Peru,
is 5,728.
</p>
<p>Yale had previously announced that there were over 4,000 Inca
lots at the Peabody. But archaeology professor Richard Burger, who
conducted a preliminary inventory of the objects earlier this year,
said there is no substantive difference between the figures.
</p>
<p>“It’s just a different way of counting the same objects,” he
said. “They don’t know of anything that I don’t know of. This whole
thing about the numbers seems to me just confusion that’s being
introduced needlessly.”
</p>
<p>University spokesman Tom Conroy could not be reached for
comment late Wednesday night. But Burger, who is on an archaeological
expedition in Peru, provided his description of these negotiations in
clear terms.
</p>
<p>“It’s been like a game of ping-pong,” he said.<br>
</p>
<p><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24510">http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24510</a></b><br>
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