Technology, believe the governments of poor countries could arrange a very beneficial barter arrangement with more affluent countries and museums around the world.

Here is how it would work: Wealthy countries would foot the bill for excavating, protecting, and preserving underdeveloped countries’ antiquities, in exchange for having the use of the local treasures for several decades.

The local treasures would then be leased by the poor country’s government to museums in the wealthy country, providing them with the rights to display the cultural artifacts on the condition that they return them after the contract expires.

The revenue generated from the lease could be spent by the poor country on pressing social needs, all the while keeping a legal grip on their antiquities...valuable treasures that were excavated and preserved at no cost to the poor country.