Yale University and the Government of Peru work on Collaborative Relationship

New Haven, Conn. — Yale recognizes the special place of Machu Picchu in the world and the unique importance of Machu Picchu to Peruvian identity and history. Consequently, at the instance of President Levin and President Alan Garcia, in September 2007, Yale and the Peruvian Government negotiated and agreed upon a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) to build a collaboration that would duly honor that heritage. The MOU recognizes Peru’s and Yale’s shared interests in the history, stewardship and scholarship of the materials excavated by Hiram Bingham from Machu Picchu in 1912, and provides for joint activities, and the return of museum quality pieces, along with a substantial portion of study fragments to Peru for display and study under agreed conditions.

The MOU has been hailed internationally as a model for resolving cultural disputes, balancing respect for Peru's cultural patrimony with the interests of the scholarly community in studying and the public in viewing these materials. The MOU's foundational principles were worked out in Lima in June 2007 and refined at a meeting in New Haven in September 2007, at which time the MOU was signed by Peruvian government representative Mr. Hernan Garrido-Lecca, Minister of Health, and witnessed by Ms. Cecilia Bakula, Director of the National Institute of Culture. Mr. Garrido-Lecca and Ms. Bakula were counseled throughout the negotiations by a team of six distinguished Peruvian representatives, diplomats and attorneys and one attorney from the United States.

Under the MOU, Peru will have legal title to all of the Machu Picchu materials under discussion. Working together, Yale and Peru will create, at Yale's expense, an international traveling exhibit of the museum quality objects. This tour will not only create positive worldwide exposure for Peru, but also provide a source of partial funding for the creation of a Machu Picchu museum and research center in Cuzco, Peru. After the tour, and once an appropriate museum space in Peru is prepared meeting standard technical requirements for security and preservation, the museum quality objects will return to Peru, along with a significant portion of the research materials. Other research materials - bits and pieces of pots, bones, and other small fragments that are similar or identical to countless objects already in Peru - will remain at Yale for a defined period, and will be one focus of Yale-sponsored collaborative research and scholarly exchanges in archaeology, biology, and park management, among other fields of study. Peru has also generously offered a small number of museum quality pieces to the Peabody Museum of Natural History for an ongoing exhibit about Inca cultural and natural history.

Yale shares the premise that Machu Picchu belongs to humanity and that its monuments were properly declared a Cultural Patrimony of the World by UNESCO and, in this spirit, believes that the MOU represents a balanced and creative solution. The MOU calls for a final agreement embodying its terms to be signed in the near future.

The Memorandum of Understanding (English)
The Memorandum of Understanding (Spanish)

Inventory of Objects Excavated at Machu Picchu
MP Ceramics-1 Master [size 2.3 MB]	MP Museum Master [size 2.2 MB]
MP Ceramics-2 Master [size 2.7 MB]	MP Faunal Master [size 240 KB]
MP Ceramics-3 Master [size 2.5 MB]	MP Lithics Master [size 3.8 MB]
MP Ceramics-4 Master [size 3.1 MB]	MP Metals Master [size 72 KB]
MP Ceramics-5 Master [size 3.2 MB]	MP Osteo Master [size 108 KB]
MP Ceramics-6 Master [size 2.7 MB]
MP Ceramics-7 Master [size 3.6 MB]
MP Ceramics-8 Master [size 1.5 MB]
The above inventory documents, available for download, are PDF files. You will need Adobe Reader, available for free from Adobe, to open and view the documents.

The History of Machu Picchu Collections at Yale is also available for download.

Photos of Peru's delegation visit to Yale:
Faunal	Human Remains	Lithic	Metals
Peru's delegation visit to Yale.	Peru's delegation visit to Yale.	Peru's delegation visit to Yale.