Magazines - Tribal Art Spring 2011

By Antonio Aimi, Italian journalist and specialist in the field of pre-Columbian art and culture.

Introduction
July 14, 2011, will be the first centenary of the official “discovery” of Machu Picchu. At the moment, details of the celebrations that Peru will hold for the occasion have yet to be announced. The only clear fact is that the pinnacle event will be on July 7, when a concert will be held in the Inca city featuring international stars, which will televised to some 500 million viewers. While Alan Garcia, President of the Republic, has declared 2011 the “Year of the Centenary of Machu Picchu,” in fact the most important event for Peru already took place on November 19, 2010. On that day, Garcia announced that Yale University was going to return the 46,000 pieces that Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham—the discoverer of record of the Inca city—had “temporarily” moved to the United States after his 1912–1915 excavation seasons. This number is so large because it includes numerous fragments but, even so, a first cut of these archaeological finds, about 300–400 “museum quality” objects (obviously even among the “archaeologically correct” some finds are recognized as more important than others), will arrive in Peru in March.