The artifacts are on loan for study in Georgia(which took multiple agencies to clear), from what I understand. But, anyone else, from any other country doesn’t have to deal with the permits that are required. I do agree that PR needs to have the artifacts and not the US, but PR just needs the facilities to handle that instead of the dumpsters that they eventually put their history in. If tourism isn’t involved, most archeologists there couldn’t care less what happens to them there. It’s real sad. Pisses me off everything I learned there. European Universities pillage PR and no one seems to care, even though it’s common knowledge. Yet, mention someone from America borrowing artifacts, and everyone there gets possessive about the fact it belongs to the people of PR. Huge double standards regarding the US. Look up the Universities in Holland(i think). They publically sell PR artifacts on the web. They make no bones about where they came from either, or, how they got them. It just infuriates me. BTW - You DO understand that I fully agree with you, right?
Well, I wasn’t sure you agreed with me - you were so passionate about your point of view! But I’m glad we agree.
About other countries and how they treat antiquities: when I lived in Spain a local farmer was plowing a field when his tractor partially broke through the ground and exposed an Etruscan tomb (Provincia de Cadiz). He marked the spot so he wouldn’t lose his tractor, then kept plowing. He notified authorities later but it might take years, even decades for the Spanish government to get around to sending out an archaeological survey team. I know this story because his neice cleaned my apartment.
Some nations have a history so crowded with human history, they are literally overwhelmed by the sheer challenge of examining and cataloguing all of it. I am beginning to suspect the same with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.