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Published March 22, 2010. Source:
Yale Daily News.com.
by Egidio DiBenedetto.
The Republic of Peru has withdrawn six of
the 17 charges filed against Yale in its
2008 lawsuit demanding the return of ancient
Inca artifacts removed from Machu Picchu by
Yale professor Hiram Bingham III between
1911 and 1915 and now housed at Yale’s
Peabody Museum.
The six charges, which were dropped Feb. 26,
accused Yale of committing fraud and
conspiracy by intentionally working with
Bingham to keep the artifacts in Yale’s
possession, contrary to the 1912 Memorandum
of Working Agreement between Yale and Peru.
Under the agreement, Yale could study
Bingham’s artifacts in New Haven while Peru
would retain the legal ownership of the
items; at the same time, Yale was to display
the artifacts in joint exhibitions with the
government of Peru, the details of which
would be ultimately left up to Peruvian
officials. Dropping the charges “allowed
Peru to streamline its case” and focus on
addressing the issues Yale presented in
January to dismiss the case, said New
York-based attorney Owen Pell, who is
representing Peru.
Jonathan Freiman LAW ’98, the attorney
representing Yale, told the Associated Press
that while he is glad the six charges have
been dropped, he thinks the remaining
charges are “equally misguided and should be
withdrawn as well.”
University General Counsel Dorothy Robinson
added in an e-mail Sunday night that the
withdrawn claims were “unfounded and
inappropriate attacks.”
“Yale had previously warned Peru that
several of its claims lacked conceivable
basis,” Robinson said. “We believe there are
strong grounds for dismissal of all of the
remaining claims as stale.”
Peru first filed suit against the University
in April 2009, arguing that the artifacts —
including “bronze, gold, and other metal
objects, mummies, skulls, bones and other
human remains, pottery, utensils, ceramics,
objects of art and other items” — belong to
Peru and its people and are central to the
history and heritage of the country. The
suit claims Yale is “wrongfully and
improperly detaining these Artifacts and has
refused their return”, and that the
University has yet to uphold its promise to
study Bingham’s findings sufficiently; Peru
claims Yale has stored a large portion of
the artifacts in unopened boxes and has
neither counted nor classified many of the
artifacts.
The remaining 11 charges in the lawsuit
argue that Yale unlawfully took the
excavated items by failing to return all
artifacts ever exported from Peru, either
before or after the Peruvian government
banned people from exploring historic sites
and removing artifacts with the so-called
Third Decree in October 1912. While lawyers
for Peru acknowledged in the original filing
that the Peruvian government created a
one-time exception for Bingham’s scientific
research in 1911, they argued that the Third
Decree granted permission for only 18 months
and that artifacts could only be exported
from Peru until their return was requested.
In addition to the repatriation of the
artifacts, Peru is also seeking compensation
from Yale for the “wrongful retention” of
the articles. In the lawsuit, Peru claims
these damages are worth “far in excess of
$75,000.”
Yale filed papers in federal court in
January, arguing that the case should be
dismissed under Connecticut law because too
much time has passed since Yale acquired the
artifacts. Peru has countered by claiming
that the artifacts never belonged to Yale in
the first place and that, under Peruvian
law, the country’s claim would not be
subject to Connecticut’s three-year statute
of limitations. The date for oral argument
before a judge on this matter has yet to be
set, Robinson said.
In the same filing, Yale argued that it
returned dozens of boxes of artifacts in
1921 and that Peru knew the University would
keep the remainder. Yale then placed the
remaining pieces on display at the Peabody
Museum and published books on Bingham’s
findings.
Yale and Peru had been trying to reach a
settlement since 2005, and the two parties
almost reached an agreement in 2007. Yale
agreed to grant Peru legal rights to certain
artifacts, which would have traveled in a
joint exhibit funded by Yale, and then
returned to a museum in Cuzco, the ancient
Inca capital. But Peru pulled out of the
deal because of a disagreement over how many
artifacts would be returned.
When Peru’s suit came at the end of the next
year, Yale filed to move the case from
Washington, D.C., to Connecticut, arguing
that Washington had no jurisdiction over the
matter.
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