Yale devuelve piezas de Machu-Picchu

Me da mucho gusto que Yale finalmente haya cumplido su compromiso con el Perú al devolvernos las piezas de Machu-Picchu que les prestamos hace ya casi 90 años. Pero me da aún más gusto que Francesco Ciabatti, el mejor amigo de mi hermano, haya defendido tan elocuentemente a nuestro país ante las falsedades presentadas en el siguiente artículo publicado en el Yale Daily News. Con gente tan inteligente y dedicada como Francesco, el Perú va a seguir dejando atrás la imagen de inestabilidad y corruptela que, gracias al trabajo de todos nosotros, ya no caracteriza a nuestros país. Arriba Frani!


ARTICULO
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21382#
Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2007
(More Opinion articles)
University, not Peru, is best place for cultural treasures

Noah Mamis and Frederick Mocatta

Yalies should be appalled at our administration’s betrayal of our commitment to the preservation and dissemination of culture for ourselves and for future generations. Yale is fortunate to have been endowed with some of the greatest cultural artifacts from around the world. We are therefore burdened with the duty to ensure that such objects are available in the best condition to the widest possible audience, for all time.

In considering the question of Yale’s Andean collection — bequeathed to us nearly a century ago by Hiram Bingham III 1898 — administrators ought to have borne in mind their duty to academia at large and to the general public, domestic and foreign, not to mention those by whom it was bequeathed to us. This decision was a cowardly one, delivered at the point of a bayonet. To relinquish the overwhelming majority of Yale’s South American collection is an exchange of, as Oakeshott would have said, “present laughter for future utopian bliss.”

Successive Peruvian governments have proven themselves thoroughly incapable of adequately safeguarding, preserving and displaying their nation’s own cultural heritage. A tradition of endemic corruption, political instability, occasional restraints on academic freedoms and the results of a nearly 30-year anarcho-Communist insurgency that has left 70,000 Peruvians dead make it eminently clear that Peru is a flawed home for these treasures. The most recent terrorist attack in Peru, this June, left six people dead and dozens injured in the market of an obscure town near the shores of Lake Titicaca. This is a home-grown, determined and concerted terrorist effort that shows a failure on the part of the Peruvian government to create a stable and inclusive political environment. This not yet considering the dereliction of duty by a century of Peruvian governments to adequately preserve, maintain and display the country’s own collection of some of the finest cultural relics in the world, let alone to ensure that the collection remains accessible to scholars. Foremost as an example of this is surely the disaster that has befallen the great Machu Picchu. One of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it faces severe threats from unregulated urban development in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes. Furthermore, the government has taken few steps to protect the site from the dangers of the burgeoning tourist industry, from the risks posed by earthquakes, or from the contractors and businesses that swarm the ancient ruins.

All this, compared to the environment that Yale is and has for almost a century been capable of providing. Admittedly, though Yale has not hitherto been adequately displaying its Andean collection to the general public, it nonetheless has been preserved and curated to a remarkable degree, and it has been easily accessible to scholars and academics from all backgrounds. Indeed, the location of these pieces at Yale implies that they are important to world heritage, for the Andeans of old who made them have about as much in common culturally with those of us in America as they have with the Peru of our day. There is no political continuity between post-Bolivar Peru and the lands of the Incan Empire.

Another concern following the capitulation of the administration of this university is the precedent that it creates. Yale was threatened with punitive legal action, and by essentially delivering an unconditional surrender in a series of closed and unaccountable agreements, without a day in court, it has only succeeded in encouraging other governments to make claims not only on Yale’s collections, but also on countless other university collections across the globe. The governments of Greece, Egypt, Italy and others, all of which have frequently made similar demands, will only be emboldened by Yale’s concession. The effect for our Roman collections, the Chinese art at Harvard’s Sackler Museum, the Native American art at Stanford or the Greek vases at the University of Chicago is inestimable. From now on, governments can — and will — blackmail our universities for art.

The writers of Monday’s “News’ View” wrote at great length about multiculturalism. Yet multiculturalism does not mean shipping Peruvian artifacts to Peru, nor the Turners in Yale’s Center for British Art to Britain. The cause of multiculturalism is not served by sending works of art back to their geographic area of origin; rather, it is promoted by continuing to encourage truly international collections in diverse locations around the world, accessible to all.

At the very least, the Peruvian government should now pay Yale a century of rent and maintenance costs.


Noah Mamis is a senior in Branford College. Frederick Mocatta is a sophomore in Branford College.




RESPUESTA DE FRANCESCO
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21474
Published: Monday, September 24, 2007
(More Opinion articles)
Column on artifacts based on falsehoods

Francesco Ciabatti

It is discomforting to realize that some Yalies are willing to write op-ed pieces based on deliberate lies. After reading Noah Mamis and Frederick Mocatta’s column “University, not Peru, is best place for cultural treasures” on Sept. 19, I feel the need as a Peruvian to respond, by saying that the authors’ argument that Peru is not fit to house the Incan artifacts is flawed, considering that most of the evidence they presented in the article is absolutely false.

With respect to the Andean collection “bequeathed to us nearly a century ago by Hiram Bingham III 1898,” it must be clarified that these artifacts were lent to the University for research purposes, rather than given as farewell gifts for the rediscovery of Machu Picchu. The fact that the University has recognized that Peru holds title to all of these pieces nearly 90 years later is not “capitulation” or “betrayal,” but rather proof that the University stands by the law and will take the necessary steps to honor an agreement and return the artifacts to their lawful owners: Peruvians.

Regardless of the authors’ views of the agreement, it is their portrayal of Peru that I find most upsetting. Calling the country one with “a tradition of endemic corruption, political instability [and] occasional restraints on academic freedoms,” as well as the home of a concerted 30-year terrorist militia “that has left 70,000 Peruvians dead” is preposterous in light of the booming economic conditions the country has been experiencing in the last few years. In economic terms, real GDP growth has averaged 5 percent a year since 2000, among the region’s highest, while average inflation, at 2 percent, is among the lowest. Per capita income has increased notoriously. The communist militia known as the Shining Path, to which the authors attribute the death of 70,000 Peruvians (real numbers are around 23,000), was eliminated more than 15 years ago following the capture of its leader, Abimael Guzman. The specific event that occurred on June 6 was not a terrorist act, but rather a confrontation between smugglers with no political intentions. The IMF has categorized Peru’s democracy and economy as one of the best in the region, far from the chaotic and unconstitutional picture painted by the authors’ false allegations.

Disaster has not befallen the great Machu Picchu. Anyone who has ever visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site knows that the “threats from unregulated urban development in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes” are completely absurd, taking into consideration that the small town is only accessible once a day by train and consists of a flea market and a few restaurants. Even then, the small community living in Aguas Calientes does not pose any threat to Machu Picchu, simply because the Wonder of the World is located 8 kilometers away, on a mountaintop. Having been in Machu Picchu only weeks ago, I can only reinforce that there is no unregulated urban development, and that rather than a “disaster,” it is a cultural jewel treasured by more than 900,000 tourists who visit Peru every year.

Lastly, I would like to say that the authors have been irresponsible in asserting that “the Andeans of old who made [the artifacts] have about as much in common culturally with those of us in America as they have with the Peru of our day.” Millions of people in Peru still speak the Incan language, Quechua, and preserve Incan traditions like the veneration of the Sun God at the ceremony of Inti Raymi. As a sign of respect to the direct descendants of the Incan culture, the authors should refrain from making unfounded generalizations about Peruvian culture without having any knowledge of the beliefs of the Andean populations.

Rather than having “blackmailed” the University for art, Peru has reached an exemplary agreement with Yale that recognizes the rule of law and promotes research, education and development. The new museum to be opened in Cuzco will undoubtedly attract more tourists and strengthen Peru’s position as the rising star in Latin America while simultaneously promoting cultural exchange with Elis from around the world. As for Mamis and Mocatta, I encourage you to visit Peru and discover that the country that you depicted as chaotic and unstable is in fact a nation with a rich past, dynamic present and very promising future.


Francesco Ciabatti is a sophomore in Branford College.