Antiquities shall be categorized as national treasures, significant antiquities or general antiquities, depending on their rarity and value.
The competent authorities shall periodically conduct general surveys of, or accept reports from individuals or organizations on, any items, objects and scopes deserving of the designations of antiquities, and shall review, record and trace in accordance with the procedures stipulated by law.
The competent authorities may review the traced antiquities under the preceding paragraph according to the procedures set forth in Articles 67 and 68.

Central government agencies and their subordinate agencies (institutions), national schools, state-owned enterprises, and national cultural artifact custodian agencies (institutions) shall preliminarily sort and grade artifacts in their custody, report the graded artifacts to the central competent authority for recordation, catalogue those deserving of the designations of national treasures or significant antiquities, and submit such catalogues to the central competent authority for review.

After the municipal, county or city competent authorities review artifacts privately owned or in the custody of local governments and designate them as general antiquities, those antiquities shall be announced and reported to the central competent authority for recordation.

The central competent authority shall review the antiquities traced or designated in accordance with the preceding two articles and designate those of higher value as national treasures or significant antiquities.
In the event that a national treasure or significant antiquity as referred to in the preceding paragraph is lost or its value diminishes or increases, the central competent authority may revoke the original designation or reclassify the antiquity, and announce the revocation and reclassification.
The regulations for classification and designation of antiques, designation criteria, revocation terms, review procedures, and other compliance requirements regarding antiquities shall be stipulated by the central competent authority.

Public antiquities shall be managed and conserved by the government agencies (institutions) having custody of them in accordance with the regulations which shall be stipulated by the central competent authority.
The antiquity custodian agencies (institutions) under the preceding paragraph shall catalogue antiquities placed in their custody, stipulate the regulations for management and protection of the antiquities, and file the catalogues with the competent authorities for recordation.

Antiquities that are confiscated or expropriated by government authorities in accordance with the laws, and those received by them from foreign governments or foreign donors shall be catalogued and delivered to the public antiquity custodian agencies (institutions) designated by the competent authorities for safekeeping.

To meet the needs of research and promotion, a public antiquity custodian agency (institution) may reproduce or supervise the reproduction of the antiquities under its custody with its name put onto such productions. Unless there are the permission and supervision from the custodian agency (institution), no third party may further reproduce such reproduced antiquities.
The regulations governing the reproduction and supervised reproduction of antiquities under the preceding paragraph shall be stipulated by the central competent authority.

The owners of private national treasures or significant antiquities may request that public artifact preservation agencies (institutions) or relevant professional preservation institutions provide expert conservation of such antiquities. The competent authorities may subsidize the conservation.
The central competent authority may demand periodic public exhibitions of national treasures or significant antiquities publicly owned or privately owned and receiving the expert conservation under the preceding paragraph.

National treasures or significant antiquities within the territory of the Republic of China may not be shipped to any foreign country. The aforesaid prohibition shall be waived in the event that overseas shipment is necessary for wars, necessary restoration, international cultural exchanges or exhibitions, or other special reasons, and applications by the central competent authority for such shipment have been approved by the Executive Yuan.
The regulations for the application procedures under the preceding paragraph and approving such applications, and the rules governing procuring insurance for, moving, safeguarding, deadlines for shipping overseas or shipping back national treasures or significant antiquities, and other compliance requirements shall be stipulated by the central competent authority.

Prior application to the competent authorities is required for exporting over-100-year-old artifacts with value from the point of view of history, art or science, which have been imported for the purposes of exhibition, research or restoration, or for importing such artifacts, which have been exported for the above purposes.
The regulations for the application procedure under the preceding paragraph, and the regulations governing procuring insurance for, moving, safeguarding, deadlines for shipping overseas or shipping back the above artifacts, and other compliance requirements shall be stipulated by the central competent authority.

A prior notice to the central competent authority is required before transfer of the ownership of any private national treasure or significant antiquity. Except for transfer to the heirs, a public artifact custodian agency (institution) shall have the right of first refusal to purchase the treasure or antiquity on the same terms and conditions offered to the potential transferees.

Anyone who discovers any ownerless potential antiquity shall forthwith report the discovery to the local municipal, county or city competent authority for it to take reasonable conservation measures.

If any potential antiquity is discovered in the course of a construction project or other land development activities, such construction or development work shall be immediately suspended and the discovery shall be reported to competent authority at the municipality, county or city where the antiquity is located for review according to the procedure set forth in Article 67.