Abstract
This is the first attempt to study leasing in the context of the international trade in cultural artifacts. This Article advances a heated debate in the field of cultural heritage law, which centers on whether cultural artifacts of ancient civilizations should belong to the modern nation states from which they are excavated or to humankind in general, by proposing an alternative analytic framework based on leasing. This framework would make it possible for objects to circulate but at the same time stay under the ownership and jurisdiction of their respective source countries.