Yale Seeks Collaborative Relationship with Peru

Published: December 9, 2008

New Haven, Conn. — Yale recognizes the special place of Machu Picchu in the world and the unique importance of Machu Picchu to Peruvian identity and history. Consequently, at the instance of President Levin and President Alan Garcia, in September 2007, Yale and the Peruvian Government negotiated and agreed upon a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) to build a collaboration that would duly honor that heritage. The MOU recognized Peru’s and Yale’s shared interests in the history, stewardship and scholarship of the materials excavated by Hiram Bingham from Machu Picchu in 1912, and provided for joint activities, and the return of museum quality pieces, along with a substantial portion of study fragments to Peru for display and study under agreed conditions.

Yale is disappointed that the government of Peru has rejected the MOU and instead decided to sue the University to recover archaeological material legally excavated at Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.

The MOU has been hailed internationally as a model for resolving cultural disputes, balancing respect for Peru's cultural patrimony with the interests of the scholarly community in studying these materials and the public in viewing them. The MOU's foundational principles were worked out in Lima in June 2007 and refined at a meeting in New Haven in September 2007, at which time the MOU was signed by Peruvian government representative Mr. Hernan Garrido-Lecca, Minister of Health, and witnessed by Ms. Cecilia Bakula, Director of the National Institute of Culture. Mr. Garrido-Lecca and Ms. Bakula were counseled throughout the negotiations by a team of six distinguished Peruvian representatives, diplomats and attorneys and one attorney from the United States.

Under the MOU, Peru would have legal title to all of the Machu Picchu materials under discussion. Working together, Yale and Peru would create, at Yale's expense, an international traveling exhibit of the museum quality objects. This tour would not only create positive worldwide exposure for Peru, but also provide a source of partial funding for the creation of a Machu Picchu museum and research center in Cuzco, Peru. After the tour, and once an appropriate museum space in Peru was prepared meeting standard technical requirements for security and preservation, the museum quality objects would return to Peru, along with a significant portion of the research materials. Other research materials - bits and pieces of pots, bones, and other small fragments that are similar or identical to countless objects already in Peru - would remain at Yale for a defined period, and would be one focus of Yale-sponsored collaborative research and scholarly exchanges in archaeology, biology, and park management, among other fields of study. Peru had also offered a small number of museum quality pieces to the Peabody Museum of Natural History for an ongoing exhibit about Inca cultural and natural history.

Yale shares the premise that Machu Picchu belongs to humanity and that its monuments were properly declared a Cultural Patrimony of the World by UNESCO and, in this spirit, believes that the MOU represents a balanced and creative solution.

Related Press Releases:
Statement by Yale University (December 9, 2008)
Statement by Yale University (November 10, 2008)
Statement by Yale University On its Negotiations With Peru (October 2, 2008)

Related Article:
Antiquity Belongs to the World
The Chronicle of Higher Education, from the issue dated July 4, 2008

Peru Broke Artifact Agreement
The Miami Herald, June 17, 2009

Related Documents:
The Memorandum of Understanding (English)
The Memorandum of Understanding (Spanish)

Statement by Yale University (English)
Statement by Yale University (Spanish)

The History of Machu Picchu Collections at Yale (English)
The History of Machu Picchu Collections at Yale (Spanish)

Myths and Facts about Yale’s Machu Picchu Materials (English)
Myths and Facts about Yale’s Machu Picchu Materials (Spanish)

Machu Picchu in a Box (English) Caretas Magazine
Machu Picchu En Caja (Spanish) Revista Caretas
Machu Picchu En Caja (Spanish: print article)

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