[nativestudies-l] NEWS: Peru calls for return of Inca objects held at Yale Peabody

[Alyssa Mt. Pleasant]

      Peru calls for return of artifacts
      In 'counterproposal,' Peruvian leaders push for immediate return
      of all Inca objects

Paul Needham <http://www.yaledailynews.com/authors/view/1804>
Staff Reporter
Published Thursday, April 17, 2008

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.

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.

Instead, while Peruvian authorities continue to cite an interest in a 
*research <http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/Research>* 
collaboration with Yale, they said they would like that interaction to 
begin after the artifacts return to Peru.

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 *Peabody 
<http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/Peabody>* Museum of Natural 
History ever since.

If *Peru <http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/Peru>* has its way, 
though, the objects will soon leave Yale.

"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."

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.

University *General Counsel 
<http://www.yaledailynews.com/tags/view/General%20Counsel>* 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."

"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."

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.

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.

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.

"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."

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.

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.

"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."

"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.

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.

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.

"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."

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.

"It's been like a game of ping-pong," he said.

*http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24510*

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