Yale to return Peru's disputed Machu Picchu objects

LIMA (Reuters) - Yale University will return artifacts taken 90 years ago from Machu Picchu and said on Monday that Peru is the rightful owner of thousands of objects found at the Inca citadel.

More than 4,000 pieces of pottery, jewelry and bones were sent out of Peru after a Yale alumni, U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, rediscovered Machu Picchu in the Andes in 1911.

Peru has said the artifacts were lent to Yale for 18 months but never sent back. Hernan Garrido Lecca, Peru's housing minister who participated in the negotiations, said the Andean country is now the rightful owner of the collection.

Museums around the world are facing demands by countries from Peru to Greece and Egypt to return ancient treasures.

"We aim to create a new model for resolving competing interests in cultural property," said Yale President Richard Levin.

Under the agreement, Yale and Peru will work on an international traveling exhibit of about 350 pieces from the collection and build a new museum for it in the Peruvian mountain city of Cusco by late 2009. Yale was guaranteed access to much of the collection for research and many pieces will continue to be housed at the university.

At the time of Bingham's find, the ancient city, now a popular tourist destination, was essentially forgotten, covered by thick forest in the mountains at 8,400 feet.