It still happens (though highly illegal if caught, but bribes get you far). Which is why I found the argument the other day about returning artifacts to Egypt i

It still happens (though highly illegal if caught, but bribes get you far). Which is why I found the argument the other day about returning artifacts to Egypt in a different HN thread kind of bonkers. Most Western explorers didn't so much loot important artifacts from the Egyptians as merely find them much in the same way the Egyptians did: digging through rubbles of ancient sites used by the locals as building materials or discarded trash piles.