The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru. — REUTERS, AFP PHOTO and AP PHOTO

Chichen Itza, Mexico

In 1926, the Mexican government charged the US Consul to the Yucatan, Edward H. Thompson, with theft of artifacts from the ruins of the ancient city of Chichen Itza.

The centre of political, economic, religious and military power of the Maya kings who ruled much of Meso-America between 800-1240 AD, Chichen Itza is considered one of the most important civilisations in the world. Most famous are the crumbling ruins of once magnificent pyramids, grand temples and palaces.

The city entered popular imagination in 1843 when John Lloyd Stephens published Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan that illustrated the rich ruins of the city. This attracted a rash of excavations from the west. One of them was by Thompson who bought the hacienda where the ruins were located. For 30 years, he recovered artifacts of gold, copper and carved jade, most of which he shipped back to the Peabody Museum in Harvard University.

Thompson was accused of smuggling national treasures out of the country and his property was seized. He died in 1935, and a decade later, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that Thompson hadn’t broken any law and returned his property to his heirs.

The Thompsons sold the property to tourism pioneer Fernando Barbachano Peon whose family now owns the hacienda.

A World Heritage site and recently voted as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, Chichen Itza is one of Mexico’s most-visited tourist attractions.

Machu Picchu, Peru

Perched on an Andean mountain ridge, the citadel of Machu Picchu is the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire that ruled for 100 years before it collapsed with the Spanish conquest in the 1500s. It then lay abandoned, enshrouded by rainforest and unknown to the world until Yale lecturer and American historian Hiram Bingham III stumbled upon it in 1911.

During his early years in Peru, Bingham built a strong relationship with Peruvian officials. So, he travelled freely across the country and borrowed archaelogical artifacts. He had collected about 5,000 pieces and entrusted them to the care of the university. Bingham went on to become a US senator.

The Peruvian government recently mounted a campaign for the repatriation of cultural objects. It contended the Machu Picchu antiquities should have been returned long ago.

Yale refused, saying it returned all borrowed items retaining only those to which it had full title. The government threatened a lawsuit.

After a long stand-off, the Peruvian government and Yale University reached an agreement in September 2007 which provided for an international travelling exhibition with admission fees to be used to build a new museum and research centre in Cusco, the city closest to Machu Picchu. The museum, for which Yale will serve as adviser, is expected to be completed in 2010.

Some research-quality artifacts will remain at Yale, while others will be returned. However, Yale relinquishes legal title to all items; that title belongs to Peru.