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 ...
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.
More from Foreign Policy

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment
Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China
As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal
Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust
Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.