Peru: artifacts

Peru vests archaeological material in the state. Pre-Hispanic archaeological objects are inalienable property of the state; export prohibited except temporary exhibition. The governing law is Ley 6634 (1929); Ley 28296 (2004) General Law of the Cultural Heritage of the Nation; the date Stratum treats as decisive is 1929 (the year of enactment — the exact commencement has not been checked, so the conservative reading is used). An object documented outside Peru before that date is sold with the document cited; one documented only later is sold with a warning that Peru could regard the export as unlawful, and the ownership history stated in full; one with no provenance at all is not listed.

The United States restricts import of Peru archaeological material of 12000 BCE – 1532 CE and ethnological material c. 1532–1821 under the CPIA (CBP Dec. 23-10, restricted since 1990). Entry needs the export certificate or proof the object left Peru before 1990. Domestic resale of material already lawfully in the US is not restricted by this, but the paper is what a buyer will ask for.

Monumental and architectural sculpture and murals from Peru — stelae, altars, lintels, wall panels, wall art — need a source-country export certificate to enter the United States under the Pre-Columbian statute (19 U.S.C. 2091–2095 (Pre-Columbian Monumental or Architectural Sculpture or Murals statute, 1972)), since 1973.

US courts have applied foreign patrimony laws through the National Stolen Property Act (United States v. McClain, 1977; United States v. Schultz, 2003): an object exported after a clear vesting law can be stolen property in the United States even when no US import restriction existed at the time. The date of the earliest document that places an object outside Peru is therefore the single most valuable fact on its record.