Treasures of Machu Picchu will be kept at a convent in Cusco

The archaeological objects that were taken by the American explorer Hiram Bingham from Machu Picchu in 1912, which are kept at Yale University, may soon come back to where they belong. The Convento de los Betlemitas in Cusco has been chosen as the temporary location to display the objects while a proper museum is built.

An inventory done by experts from the National Cultural Institute of Peru at Yale University, determined that the professor of Yale, Hiram Bingham, took 46,332 objects and fragments from Machu Picchu in 1912. The Peruvian government expects the university to return all the objects and fragments since these are part of Peru’s national heritage, which were taken by the explorer on loan at the time.

Hiram Bingham has been known as the explorer that discovered Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, in 1911. However, new evidence point to Agustin Lizarraga who found the site on July 14, 1902, nine years before the American explorer.