First Afghanistan, then Incan pottery

President Obama definitely has a lot on his mind after the drubbing congressional Democrats received yesterday. It seems unlikely that he’ll get himself involved in an international argument over antiquities, but that hasn’t stopped the Peruvian government from trying. President Alan García formally asked US President Barack Obama his support behind Peru’s demands for Yale ...

Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images

President Obama definitely has a lot on his mind after the drubbing congressional Democrats received yesterday. It seems unlikely that he'll get himself involved in an international argument over antiquities, but that hasn't stopped the Peruvian government from trying.

President Obama definitely has a lot on his mind after the drubbing congressional Democrats received yesterday. It seems unlikely that he’ll get himself involved in an international argument over antiquities, but that hasn’t stopped the Peruvian government from trying.

President Alan García formally asked US President Barack Obama his support behind Peru’s demands for Yale University to return thousands of artifacts removed from the Inca site of Machu Picchu a century ago for study at the US university.

In a letter, delivered to the US Ambassador to Peru Rose M. Likins, President Garcia said that Obama’s support was "fair and necessary" for Yale University to return the pieces removed from Machu Picchu.

According to the letter, Obama’s support is necessary as the US government led by William Howarf Taft in those years, was the one that authorized Hiram Bingham’s work in Peru.

Without a doubt it’s unfortunate and unfair American and European scientists and scholars pilfered artifacts from around the world to bolster collections at museums from Berlin to New Haven. But it’s difficult to imagine that Obama, with his myriad domestic and international concerns, will do much to return pottery, jewelry and bones to Machu Pichu.

Twitter: @maxstrasser

More from Foreign Policy

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment

Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China

As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal

Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.
A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust

Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.