January 11, 2010 - 4:36pm
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Yale University says a lawsuit by Peru seeking the
return of thousands of Inca artifacts removed from the famed Machu Picchu
citadel nearly a century ago should be dismissed because a statue of
limitations expired.
Peru rejects the argument, saying Yale never owned the artifacts and that
its claim is not subject to a statute of limitations under Peruvian law.
Peru also says Yale did not assert ownership of the artifacts until late
2008.
"The artifacts are of immense cultural and historical importance," Peru's
attorneys wrote in recently filed court papers. "Yale's mere retention of
the artifacts establishes nothing."
The South American nation filed the lawsuit in December 2008 demanding the
Ivy League university return artifacts taken by famed scholar Hiram Bingham
III between 1911 and 1915. The claim accuses Yale of fraudulently holding
the relics for decades.
The Machu Picchu ruins, perched in the clouds at 8,000 feet above sea
level on an Andean mountaintop, are Peru's main tourist attraction. The
complex of stone buildings was built in the 1400s by the Inca empire that
ruled Peru before the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century.
Yale filed court papers Friday arguing the lawsuit should be dismissed
because of a three-year statue of limitations under Connecticut law. Yale
says it returned dozens of boxes of artifacts in 1921 and that Peru knew it
would retain some artifacts.
"In the twenty-first century, long after everyone with any personal memory
of the expeditions had died, Peru claimed that Yale had not returned enough
of the artifacts and demanded that it now return any artifacts that Bingham
had exported from Peru," Yale's attorneys wrote.
Yale describes the artifacts as "primarily fragments of ceramic, metal and
bone" and says it recreated some objects from fragments.
Peru says the artifacts are composed of centuries-old Incan materials,
including bronze, gold and other metal objects, mummies, skulls, bones and
other human remains, pottery, utensils, ceramics and objects of art. Peru
says the most important artifacts were never returned.
Peru has been pressing its claim to the relics for years, saying it never
relinquished ownership of the artifacts.
In 2007, the two sides agreed to give Peru legal title to the pieces,
which were to travel in a joint exhibit and then return to a museum and
research center in the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco. Yale would have
funded the traveling exhibit and partially funded the museum.
But Peru backed out of the deal because of a dispute over how many
artifacts were to be returned.
Yale has said it was disappointed that Peru decided not to honor the 2007
agreement. The university said then that under the deal, it had promised to
return all "museum quality objects" 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," Yale
said at the time.
The lawsuit seeks damages on several counts including breach of contract,
unjust enrichment and fraud. It says the monetary damages will be proven at
trial and that each count "far exceeds $75,000."
The claim cites century-old government documents granting Bingham
permission to excavate and remove the artifacts, but retaining ownership
and reserving the right to request their return.
Peru says the documents show Yale was aware that Peru owned the pieces and
knowingly violated U.N. cultural property agreements by refusing to return
them.
Bingham is commonly credited with rediscovering Machu Picchu centuries
after the Incas abandoned the site during the Spanish conquest. But in
recent years, versions suggesting that other foreign and local explorers
beat him to the site have gained currency among Peruvian historians.