LIMA (Reuters) - Peru says Yale University researchers took more than 40,000 artefacts from the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu in the early 1900s, or 10 times the original estimate, the state news agency reported on Sunday.
A team from Peru's National Institute of Culture travelledto the U.S. university in March to take an inventory of thepieces of pottery, jewellery and bones housed there, as part ofan agreement to repatriate the relics.
Hernan Garrido Lecca, who is leading Peru's drive toreclaim the objects, released the inventory results to statenews agency Andina.
The artefacts were sent out of Peru after a Yale alumnus,U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, rediscovered Machu Picchu in theAndes in 1911.
Peru has said the objects were loaned to Yale for 18 monthsbut never sent back.
At the time of Bingham's find, the ancient city, now apopular tourist destination, was essentially forgotten, coveredby thick forest in the mountains at 8,400 feet above sea level.
Museums around the world are facing demands by countriesfrom Peru to Greece and Egypt to return ancient treasures.
(Reporting by Jean Luis Arce; Writing by Hilary Burke;Editing by Bill Trott)
