CNN.com
Friday, December 2, 2005
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Peru has formally warned Yale University that it will be sued if relics taken from Machu Picchu by famed U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham nearly a century ago are not returned, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
"Peru has notified Yale University President Richard Levin that a lawsuit is prepared if its rights to the archaeological pieces are not recognized," the ministry said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
"We are convinced that we have sufficient proof to win in court," Foreign Minister Oscar Maurtua said in the statement, noting that Peru still preferred a settlement to a long, expensive legal fight.
The threat was delivered to Yale in a letter written by Peru's ambassador to the United States, Eduardo Ferrero, according to the statement. The letter's date was not specified.
Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said the university has been "having discussions with the government of Peru and we are hoping for a resolution that is satisfactory to all involved."
Luis Guillermo Lumbreras, chief of Peru's National Institute of Culture, told AP in an interview Wednesday that Peru was preparing for a court battle to retrieve nearly 5,000 artifacts, including mummies, ceramics and human bones, excavated by Bingham during three expeditions in 1911, 1912 and 1914.
Lumbreras said former President Augusto B. Leguia gave Bingham "permission to temporarily export the objects for scientific ends," for a period of one year. That later was extended by 18 months, Lumbreras said, adding that the items should have been returned in 1916.
The ruins at Machu Picchu, located on a craggy mountaintop above a lush valley 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Lima, are Peru's top tourist attraction.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.