Peru is preparing a lawsuit against Yale University to retrieve artefacts taken nearly a century ago from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a government official said on Wednesday.
Peru has held discussions in recent years with Yale seeking the return of nearly 5,000 artefacts, including ceramics and human bones that explorer Hiram Bingham dug up during three expeditions to Machu Picchu in 1911, 1912 and 1914.
"Yale considers the collection university property, given the amount of time it has been there," said Luis Guillermo Lumbreras, chief of Peru's National Institute of Culture, in an interview.
"This is something we do not recognize because the pieces were legally granted in a temporary loan. That is the reason it will be necessary to air this in the courts and no longer simply on the level of diplomatic conversations."
Peru's Foreign Ministry was preparing the legal case and would likely present it in Connecticut state court, Lumbreras said. He said it was not clear when the lawsuit would be filed.
Richard Burger, chairman and director of graduate studies at Yale's Council on Archaeological Studies, did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment.
Tom Conroy, a spokesman for the university, said he was still looking into Peru's assertion that the artefacts were only on loan.
Lumbreras said former President Augusto Leguia gave Bingham "permission to temporarily export the objects for scientific ends," with the agreement that the artefacts would be returned after one year. That later was extended by 18 months.
"Theoretically, they should have been returned after Jan. 27, 1916," Lumbreras said. "The fact is, they weren't returned."
For decades, Peru did not pursue the matter, he said.
"It stayed that way for nearly 100 years," Lumbreras said. "The 100th anniversary of the scientific anniversary of Machu Picchu is coming. We believe it is time to return the collection."
David Bingham, grandson of Hiram Bingham, said he never heard of any promise to return the artefacts and said Yale has been a good caretaker.
"Yale has taken very good care of the stuff and it probably brought more visitors to Peru than almost any other thing because the exhibits at Yale are so famous," he said.
But Bingham said there's no reason Yale and Peru shouldn't be able compromise, assuming the country can guarantee the preservation of the artefacts. He said there are enough artefacts to create displays in both places.
"There's enough interest where you could have a permanent exhibit in Peru," he said.
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