un artículo ha pasado desapercibido estos días en lima. escrito por christopher heaney (egresado de la universidad de yale y actualmente realizando una investigación en el perú) sobre la colección machu picchu en su centro de estudios. el título es fuerte (”robándole a los incas”) y habla mucho sobre el “impasse” entre nuestro país y su universidad. algunos párrafos:

It seemed cut-and-dry — Yale broke Bingham’s agreement — and President Toledo’s government refused anything less than the collection’s complete return. The university wouldn’t admit any wrongdoing, however, outlasted Peru’s threatened lawsuit and in July 2006 welcomed the election of President Alan García. The new administration’s less aggressive approach got Yale to recognize Peruvian ownership of the collection, and will bring an infusion of Ivy League money to the country’s archaeological programs. But one member of Mr. Toledo’s negotiating team criticized the condition that Yale would retain part of the “research collection.”

“How much longer will those pieces stay there? A century more?” Luis Lumbreras, the director of the National Institute of Culture under President Toledo, asked in the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio.

Mr. Lumbreras was right. The current director of the National Institute of Culture claims that all of the Machu Picchu artifacts will be returned eventually, but omitted a wrinkle that Yale’s vice president and general council shared with The Yale Daily News: that “Peru will grant Yale the right to possess and use the research materials that will stay at Yale” — “usufructurary rights” — for a term of 99 years. Peru will be able to access the pieces, but the condition makes Peru’s “title” to the artifacts more and more symbolic.

[...]

Lastly, there are the artifacts for which Bingham paid $480,000 in today’s money to Peruvian antiquarians, who then smuggled the pieces to Yale. Peru and the United States’ 1997 agreement to stop antiquity smuggling in essence ignores artifacts trafficked before 1981 — understandable from a logistical standpoint — but their existence compromises Yale’s moral high ground. (ver artículo completo)

el dato es cierto. si uno revisa uno de los últimos artículos en el yale daily news encontrará lo siguiente:

In September, University General Counsel Dorothy Robinson said the two parties had agreed to share over the next 99 years the rights to possess and use the research materials remaining at Yale. (ver artículo completo)

el tema es harto complicado y si uno entra al yale daily news encontrará que dentro de dicha universidad la pelea sigue. algunos no quieren que se devuelva nada o que perú pague por mantenimiento:

At the very least, the Peruvian government should now pay Yale a century of rent and maintenance costs. (noah mamis y frederick mocatta)

eso despertó la justa indignación del peruano francesco ciabatti, estudiante de yale. claro, hay opiniones que buscan el punto medio, pero punto medio siempre será que parte del material llevado por bingham se quede en yale.

en fin, como señalan los de yale, han pasado sesenta días desde que se acordaron sesenta días para resolver la disputa. como nuestro megaministro garrido lecca está resolviendo todo por chincha, me imagino que el nuevo asesor william cook (que reemplazó a fernando cantuarias) nos informará prontamente.

claro.

ver más:

- expediente machu picchu completo
- robándole a los incas (por christopher heaney)
- todo machu picchu en yale (yale daily news)

perútags: hiram-bingham universidad-de-yale museo-peabody machu-picchu new7wonder maravilla-del-mundo peru hernan-garrido-lecca acuerdo convenio