The State Administration of Cultural Heritage has issued a notice on forbidding the use of state-owned cultural relics as gifts in an effort to protect these invaluable relics of the state better still.

Beijing Daily reported that the use of state-owned cultural relics as gifts was found in some places of China, causing loses of state-owned property and valuable cultural heritage.

According to China's law on cultural heritage protection, all the cultural relics collected, kept and managed by state-owned cultural relics management organizations, government departments, army units, state-owned enterprises and institutions are the state assets that belong to the nation.

State-owned museums and cultural relics management organizations are forbidden to give away or sell any of their cultural relics.

In recent years, with the booming market of cultural relics and artworks, some people in China have started to offer cultural relics as gifts. And in order to shun fake cultural relics, some individuals turn their eyes to cultural relics preserved in museums.

The activities have violated China's law on cultural heritage protection, and this caused great loses of the country's state-owned property and cultural heritages, said the notice.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2005)