Posted on 01/10/2006 4:59:41 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
MACHU PICCHU, PERU – The Incas built this mysterious city here, it is told, to be closer to the gods. It was placed so high in the clouds, at 7,700 feet, that the empire- raiding Spaniards never found, or destroyed, it.
Today, visitors to Machu Picchu see well-preserved ruins hidden among the majestic Andes: complete with palaces, baths, temples, tombs, sundials, and agricultural terraces, and also llamas roaming among hundreds of gray granite houses.
But they won't find too many bowls, tools, ritual objects, or other artifacts used by the Incas of the late 1400s. To see those, they have to travel to New Haven, Conn.
Yale historian Hiram Bingham rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911, and, backed by the National Geographic Society, returned with large expeditions in 1912 and 1915, each time carting out - with supposed special permission from Peruvian President Augusto B. Leguía - crates filled with archeological finds.
But now, Peru is threatening to sue the Ivy League school, claiming the permission was either given illegally or misunderstood. The "treasures of Machu Picchu," states David Ugarte, regional director of Peru's National Culture Institute (INC), were given to the American explorer "on loan."
Peru's tussle with the university is not a unique case. From the time Greece started demanding the British Museum return the Elgin Marbles in 1820, to last month, when Italy demanded that the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art give them back objects including the Euphronios Krater, a 500 BC vase, countries of origin have steadily grown more assertive about retrieving their cultural heritage.
"This is our patrimony. This is everything to us - proof that even though today we are poor, our ancestors lived great and proud," explains Mr. Ugarte. "Bingham said he was going to study those pieces and give them back. It was clear to all they were to be returned."
Yale claims in a Dec. 8 letter to Peru that "the civil code of 1852, which was in effect at the time of the Bingham expeditions, gave Yale title to the artifacts at the time of their excavation and ever since."
Colin Renfrew, professor of archeology at Cambridge University in England, says the key to resolving the case hinges on the answer to "what was the deal between Bingham and Peru at the time?" But the answer to that, he admits, "is very murky."
Peru claims that numerous, documented requests to return the pieces - or even negotiate the issue - starting in 1917, were ignored by Yale. "They always wrote back with different excuses - first they said they needed more time to evaluate the pieces, then, in later years, said they were studying our requests for the return," says Ugarte. But, now, with the 100th anniversary of the city's rediscovery coming up, he says, Peru has had enough.
President Alejando Toledo, the country's first indigenous president, who is set to leave office in July 2006, has - together with his anthropologist wife - made the retrieval of the objects a priority.
"Peru has notified Yale University President Richard Levin that a lawsuit is being prepared if its rights to the archaeological pieces are not recognized," Peru's Foreign Minister Oscar Maurtua announced on Nov. 30. "We are convinced that we have sufficient proof to win in court." INC director Luis Guillermo Lumbreras has said the lawsuit would be filed in Connecticut state court in the next few months, but an international tribunal may make the final decision.
Yale, in its Dec. 8 letter, notes that it sent back some of the artifacts in 1922 (Peru concedes, but says these particular items were "worthless") and stresses that a long, costly lawsuit would be a mistake.
Instead, Barbara Shailor, Yale's deputy provost for the arts suggests a compromise: "We have proposed to collaborate with Peru in overseeing the return to Peru of a substantial number of the artifacts," writes Ms. Shailor. But just as Yale is willing to "...recognize the importance to the Peruvian people of ... the return of this patrimony," so, she would like Peru to "give honorable recognition to Yale for its stewardship of the collection for nearly a century, and in the scientific and scholarly contributions thereby made possible."
In 2003, Yale's Peabody Museum mounted a major exhibition of the artifacts that traveled the US, introducing the wonders of Machu Picchu to more than a million people - just as Bingham's books and articles about "The Lost City of the Incas" did close to a century ago.
Bingham had multiple theories about Machu Picchu: that it was a training ground for Inca priestesses; the last Inca stronghold abandoned as the Spanish invaded; or the city of origin of the Inca empire, which dominated South America from Colombia to Chile for about a century.
Experts now say Bingham got it wrong on all counts, and that Machu Picchu was a summer sanctuary of the Inca Emperor Pachacutec.
Yale points out that its efforts have helped make Machu Picchu South America's best-known archeological site, attracting half a million tourists a year.
The fight over the artifacts is compounded by the fact that each side claims the crates Bingham sent out contained something different. Peru says Yale has in its possession close to 5,000 pieces. And, while even Lumbreras has admitted the site had been ransacked many times over the centuries by the time Bingham got there - it is common to hear Peruvians talk about stolen "treasures."
"Who knows where other - better - pieces are?" says Mariana Mould de Pease, a historian of Peruvian heritage. "I want to know what Yale did between 1911 and 2003 when they mounted the exhibition? Where were all the pieces?"
Shailor says all this is "misleading."
"Yale has approximately 250 pieces of exhibitable quality," she writes. "Yale has no mummies, no gold objects, and only a small number of silver pieces."
Roger Atwood, author of "Stealing History," a book on antiquities looting in Peru, says it is clear Yale is "taking a cooperative attitude" and suggests Peru rely on "ethical persuasion" rather than the courts.
"The artifacts are ... the treasures of Peru's most famous pre-Colombian city," agrees Chris Heaney, a Yale graduate writing a book about the controversy. "On the other hand, Yale has taken care of these pieces for over 90 years.... They are not the 'bad guys' here. They are a well-meaning scientific organization, not looters."
Why is it that those who know the least say it the loudest?
Actually, in all instances had the locals maintained control of their "priceless" heritage, they would have all disappeared. The dummy response to this is "so what it's theirs". At least I agree with this last part.
We are talking curiosities here; the nexus between the originators and the current activists is tenuous at best and if it makes Yale or anyone else feel good to send the stuff back, good for them.
Other than curiosity value, and the providing a lot of "jobs" to the otherwise unemployable, what good is it?
On the Porch of the Maidens, the columns (carytids) have been taken to the museum in Athens because otherwise they were becoming dust. Some of the details have been lost, as you can see in this image. I believe the maiden on the corner may still be original, and you can see how her face and the drapery are wearing away. The figure in the back right is a copy and is not nearly as subtly done (as can be seen in the back of her drapery).
Yes, the Greek protected these works, but they waited until nearly 200 years after Lord Elgin "took" the other works to England. The acid rain in Athens is eating the works that do remain.
BUMP!
I am totally comfortable with having these stone age civilizations dig up, destroy, ignore, or shoot their "heritage" into orbit.
Just let them do it without our help. Or the help of "professional" hobbyists.
The reason the Parthenon is in such a ruin as it is, is because the occupying Turks used the place as a powder magazine, and it blew up during a battle with the Venetians in the late 1600's..
Yes the maidens in the museum were degraded and are being preserved by the Greeks. The Caryatids were moved to the museum in the 70's. I had the impression none are still left to the elements. As they are, they are still beautiful. They are not dust and at this point preservation is no excuse for theft.
As an aside, the British Museums treatment of its Egyptian artifacts is abominable. Priceless artifacts are left out for countless museum goers to rub their grubby fingers over them. I say send them back.
Yes and the Turks are the reason Lord Elgin was able to loot the Acropolis. He got his authorization from them.
In many cases, such as this one, permission was specifically given by the then-current government to take the items. Other items, like Cleopatra's Needles, were actually gifts.
Despite the legal merits of this case, Yale would be wise to just give them back.
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If South Africa demanded all its gold and diamonds back, on the grounds that the stuff happened to be under their land when their people first moved into the place, and that it therefore constitutes their heritage, would you surrender yours?
Seriously, does this mean I have to give back the arrowheads I found as a kid?
After all, that seems to be the direction of all this.
Find a treasure, or just a relic, and there is a long line waiting to claim it.
I can't think of a greater disincentive to looking.
Something similar has happened with fossils already.
These smaller opportunities are the sparks which ignite the passion for geology, archaeology, paleontology, etc. at an early age, and without that the fields will suffer.
I don't know, but the stuff's legally theirs, and originating countries now want to welch on deals they made, usually to their profit at the time. You have to convince a museum that gets prestige and makes money off the exhibition of this stuff to give it up.
Most of the archaelogists of the early 20th century and late 19th were not shinning examples of scientific discretion when it came to preserving these artifacts.
I'm only talking about when they had legal permission.
Too bad Elgin didn't take the giant stone buddhas from Afghanistan.
Aren't you suggesting cowering before a Turd World whiner? This suggestion of yours seems to have an aura of PC submission to it. Is that deliberate? If so, might I inquire as to your reasoning?
I am underwhelmed with your logic. Give back to the Turd World artifacts which they will not protect/preserve?
As ideas go, that isn't. A statement of PC speak, yes - a viable idea regarding peservation of artifacts, no.
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