Special Exhibition: Machu Picchu Controversy at the Peabody

Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions for About's Art History page, has another great exhibit review piece, this one on "Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas", an exhibition at Yale University's Peabody Museum based on the collections of Hiram Bingham's 1911 explorations of the famous Inca site. This collection is the focus of a controversy over their long-awaited repatriation to Peru. Stan's photo gallery includes several images and background info on artifacts from the Inca site, including this one, a ceramic vessel called a Paccha, dated to the Late Horizon and made in the provinces out from Machu Picchu between about AD 1476-1534.

• Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas, from Stan Parchin and Shelley Esaak
• Exhibition Webpage at the Peabody Museum
• Machu Picchu: Lost City of the Incas Photo Gallery, from Bonnie Hamre, South America for Visitors
• Machu Picchu: A Home in the Clouds, a history of the site
• A Walking Tour of Machu Picchu

These artifacts, part of a 5,000 piece collection which was removed from Peru by the explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911 and taken to Yale for storage and investigation, are the focus of a current dispute between Yale and the Peruvian government. Peru has awaited repatriation of the artifacts since about 1912, and have built a museum to maintain them. At this moment in time, negotiations between Yale and the government of Peru have broken down, and the Peruvian government is currently preparing a legal suit against Yale to have the objects returned.

• World News on Machu Picchu, a compilation of news stories on the controversy, from Antonio Gutierrez
• Peruvians protest that Yale return Machu Picchu artifacts to Peru, Kambiz Kamrani on Anthropology.net (May 2006)
• After almost a century, Peru revives the drama of Hiram Bingham, 5,000 artifacts, and Machu Picchu., Christopher Heaney blogs on the history of Hiram Bingham and Peru in Legal Affairs (April 2006)
• Peru Seeks Return of Machu Picchu Artifacts, National Public Radio podcast describes the dispute (March 2006)
• 90 years later, Peru battles Yale over Incan artifacts, Christian Science Monitor (Dec 2005)

The photograph is courtesy the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. The exhibition of 200 ceramic, bone, metal, stone, textile and wooden works of art and artifacts made by the Inca during the 15th and 16th centuries and found at Machu Picchu, opened on September 11, 2005 and runs through the 27th of August 2006.