Returning Cultural Property through Washington

An object returned at an embassy may have passed through a criminal investigation, customs enforcement, or a negotiated settlement with a museum. These routes impose different tasks on a mission: identifying an owner, securing cooperation between investigators, negotiating access to a collection, or arranging its transfer. The returns to Peru, Italy, and India show how public ceremonies conclude work carried out by police, prosecutors, curators, and diplomats, sometimes over many years. [6] [2] [8]

Tracing Stolen Objects

A dealer who noticed that two Peruvian colonial paintings had been cut from their frames contacted the FBI when the seller could not provide the necessary documentation. The paintings were returned to Ambassador Luis Miguel Valdivieso in 2010. In the Indian case, a tip about a falsely declared shipment in 2007 helped launch Operation Hidden Idol, the investigation associated with many of the objects presented for return in 2016. [6] [8]

Import Restrictions and Law Enforcement

Under the U.S. implementation of the 1970 UNESCO convention, agreements and emergency measures can restrict imports of designated categories of threatened archaeological or ethnological material. Peru concluded an agreement in 1997, and Italy followed in 2001. [4] [1]

At Peru’s embassy in July 2012, Ambassador Harold Forsyth received fourteen paintings and artifacts recovered through five investigations, alongside immigration enforcement director John Morton and Deputy Attorney General James Cole. At Italy’s embassy in October 2023, Ambassador Mariangela Zappia appeared with a Carabinieri cultural heritage commander, State Department officials, and Homeland Security Investigations representatives. [1] [3]

Negotiating a Museum Settlement

Peru’s November 2010 agreement with Yale concerned material excavated at Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham. The university agreed to return it, and Yale and the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco subsequently planned a center in Cusco for display, conservation, and study. Shipments began in March 2011. [2]

At the Peruvian ambassador’s residence, Harold Forsyth later paid tribute to Yale president Richard Levin for the collection’s preservation and the plans for joint scholarship. [7] [2]

Announcing and Completing Repatriation

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington in June 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch joined him to announce the return of more than 200 artifacts. India’s prime minister’s office distinguished twelve objects already returned from the larger group still moving through the process. [8] [9]

Modi and President Barack Obama included the repatriation in their joint statement and committed to further action against theft and trafficking. [5]