July 4, 2008

Antiquity Belongs to the World

By JAMES CUNO

Archaeology must be shielded from nationalistic laws and politics

Last September, Yale University agreed to return a large number of artifacts that it had excavated at Machu Picchu in 1912. During the administration of President Alejandro Toledo (2001-6), Peru had contended that the objects were merely on loan and should have been returned long ago. Yale countered that all of the loaned objects had been returned in the 1920s and that it had good title to the ones still in New Haven.

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