Yale Returns Artifacts to Peru

A group of artifacts taken from Machu Picchu almost a century ago for Yale's Peabody Museum will be returned, Yale and the Peruvian government announced on Friday. The collection to be returned consists of 380 museum-quality objects, as well as part of those in the research collection. Yale will grant Peru title on all excavated objects.

The objects have been under dispute since Yale's Hiram Bingham III excavated them in 1911. Peru's previous administration threatened to sue Yale for the objects' return, but current President Alan Garcia dropped the suit in favor of more conciliatory negotiations. And animosity vanquished, Yale and Peru now plan to begin a scholarly exchange focused around Machu Picchu. (More Peru stories.)