(CNN) -- Peru's president says Yale University has agreed to return artifacts to the South American country -- a move that could end a lengthy dispute over relics excavated nearly a century ago.
A university representative pledged in a meeting Friday to return a massive collection of artifacts collected from the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said.
"The Peruvian government is grateful for this decision and recognizes that Yale University conserved these parts and pieces that otherwise would have been dispersed in private collections throughout the world, and perhaps would have disappeared," Garcia said in a statement.
The pieces will be returned at the beginning of 2011 -- in time for the country's celebration of the 100th anniversary of Machu Picchu's re-discovery, Garcia said.
They were first excavated from the site by historian Hiram Bingham in 1912, according to Yale.
Bingham was an adjunct professor of Latin American history at Yale from 1907 and 1915. His collection of archaeological pieces from the site, documents and photographs are housed at the university's Peabody Museum.
After returning to Peru, the relics would be handed over to San Antonio Abad del Cusco University, where investigators will continue studying them, Garcia said.
Peruvian officials have demanded their return for years. And the country had filed a civil lawsuit against the university over the artifacts in U.S. District Court.
Garcia said he hashed out the deal Friday with former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, who currently directs the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.
CNN
