Oriental Institute

Description:

The Oriental Institute (OI), founded in 1919, is the University of Chicago's archeology museum and research center for ancient Near Eastern studies.
Even given boundless resources and similar archeological discoveries, a collection similar to the Institute's treasures could not be assembled today, since Middle Eastern governments no longer allow foreign archeologists to take home half of what they find.
This had been the classic arrangement in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when most of the holdings were excavated, until the 1930s, when new antiquities laws were instituted.