Yale University has made a deal with the Peruvian government to return artifacts found at the ancient city of Machu Picchu from 1911 to 1915 by history professor Hiram Bingham.

Just how many artifacts will be returned is unclear; Yale says about 370 works of museum quality will be sent back initially.

Yale history professor Hiram Bingham excavated 4,000 objects from Machu Picchu in three excavating trips from 1911 to 1915.
(CBC)

Peruvian President Alan Garcia called the accord a breakthrough and news reports in the Peruvian capital of Lima said thousands of fragments and pottery taken from the site high in the Andes would be returned.

In 2006, Peru threatened legal action over the collection, saying it agreed to removal of the artifacts by Bingham on the condition they be returned in 18 months.

Yale University holds more than 4,000 pieces excavated by the swashbuckling historian, who rediscovered the Inca citadel in 1911 and returned three times to excavate. 

Bingham's finds at the city, believed to be a birthplace of the Inca Empire, included silver statues, jewellery, musical instruments and human bones.

Yale says it now acknowledges Peru's title to all the excavated objects, a significant admission after months of negotiations in which it attempted to divide Bingham's spoils with the Peruvians.

But Yale president Richard C. Levin, speaking to the Los Angeles Times, said about 370 intact objects would be returned and other pieces would be kept by Yale for "research purposes."

The university has entered into a program of research exchanges with Peruvian experts to last at least three years.

Levin said the university wants to use modern techniques of carbon dating to pinpoint the age of the artifacts.

Peru is building a new museum in the Andean city of Cuzco, close to Machu Picchu, which is its biggest tourist destination.

Yale will act as an adviser at the museum and the artifacts will be installed there in time for the 100th anniversary of the rediscovery of Machu Picchu in 2011.

Yale and Peru have also agreed to create a travelling expedition of the collection.

"This is a pioneering approach to dealing with the problems of cultural patrimony," Levin told the Los Angeles Times.

Many cultural institutions and museums are facing claims from countries for objects they say were plundered by 19th and 20th century archeologists.

Earlier this year, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles returned 40 objects to Italy after a long-running legal dispute.