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Controls on the export of antiques are to be tightened to protect the nation's treasures, a top cultural official said yesterday.

Shan Jixiang, director-general of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said that new rules to be introduced at the end of the year will prohibit the export of any antiques that date before 1911 - which marked the end of the rule of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Current regulations prevent dealers and collectors from moving any items out of the country that date before 1795.

Shan told China Daily that when the new regulations come into effect, "many items in current circulation on the mainland will be stopped from flowing onto the overseas market".

The rules are being changed to improve the status of cultural heritage protection, he said.

According to the Cultural Heritage Protection Law and Auction Law, an exemption can be made only if an antique is bought at an auction on the mainland and it is an overseas collector who consigns the auction house to sell it.

Otherwise, if a Ming vase, for example, is bought by either a foreigner or a Chinese at an auction or at the Panjiayuan, Beijing's famous "dirt market", it cannot be taken abroad.

The problem, however, is that thousands of antiques are being smuggled out of China every year, Shan said. Many are moved first to Hong Kong before going on to Europe or the United States.

"The thieves and smugglers are organized and well-equipped. They have networks around the globe, and these days tend to use violence much more than they did before," he said.

Their primary interest now is the cultural heritage of ethnic minority groups and relics that lie underwater in China's thousands of sunken ships.

"Many precious artworks, like ancient rock carvings by ethnic minority groups, are bought for pennies and then smuggled abroad," Shan said.

He said in recent years the thieves have switched their focus. About two years ago they concentrated on stealing large numbers of rock carvings from historical sites, he said, and before that they were involved in tomb raiding and stealing from museums.

It became harder to steal from museums with the advent of high-tech security equipment, Shan said, so gang bosses shifted their attention to ethnic minority areas and sunken treasure.

Gu Yucai, director of the SACH's cultural heritage protection department, said that as a result of both crime and development, many of China's 400,000 immovable cultural treasures, such as architecture and monuments, might have been lost.

The full picture will be revealed on completion of a national cultural heritage survey that is due for completion in 2011.