Article 50 of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics states that citizens, legal persons and other organizations other than cultural relics collection units may collect cultural relics obtained in the following ways:
The first is to inherit or accept gifts according to law, that is, treasures handed down by ancestors or gifts from others. You can keep them yourself without giving them to the country.
The second is to buy from the cultural relics store. You can also buy it from other stores that specialize in selling cultural relics. This ownership is also your own.
The third kind is purchased from auction companies that operate cultural relics auctions.
Fourth, cultural relics legally owned by individual citizens are exchanged or transferred according to law.
Generally speaking, as long as it is legal, cultural relics obtained through formal channels can be collected by themselves, and what they find is also their own. Only those cultural relics excavated from graves are illegal, because grave robbery is illegal and not allowed in China. Of course, such cultural relics are illegal and must be turned over to the state.
Extended data:
The cultural relics mentioned in the preceding paragraph collected by citizens, legal persons and other organizations other than cultural relics collection units may be circulated according to law.
Citizens, legal persons and other organizations shall not buy or sell the following cultural relics:
(1) State-owned cultural relics, except those permitted by the state;
(2) Precious cultural relics in non-state-owned collections;
(3) murals, sculptures, building components, etc. State-owned immovable cultural relics, except those that are removed according to law and are not stipulated in the fourth paragraph of Article 20 of this Law and should be collected by cultural relics collection units;
(4) Cultural relics whose sources do not conform to the provisions of Article 50 of this Law.
References:
Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) on the Protection of Cultural Relics (revised on 20 17)-National Cultural Heritage Administration