Le service des antiquites was transformed in 1971 into the Egyptian Antiquities Organization EAO (Presidential decree 2828/1971) having its own president and belonging to the ministry of culture.

The EAO was then transformed by the decree 82/1994 into the supreme council of Antiquities SCA belonging to the ministry of culture and its president is the minister himself.

The public law 117/1983 is the only and principal law that assigns power to the central and public offices concerned with the different cultural Heritage categories in Egypt and which belong to the following juridical sectors of SCA:
- Prehistoric, Ancient Egyptian and Graeco-Roman Sector (all sites all over Egypt).
- Islamic and Coptic sector (all monuments and sites in Egypt).
- Museums sector (all central and local museums).
- Technical affairs (Architecture, Restoration, Engineering) sector for all antiquities.
- Funding sector.
All listed private collections are also covered by this law and not private law exists in Egypt.
According to the law 117, the term antiquity is applied to any building or movable object resulting from the different civilizations that span the totality of the Egyptian History (reflecting human, artistic, technical, military, religious aspects) and of more than one hundred years old.
However, a building or a movable object of great cultural value could be listed a national Heritage regardless its age by a decree of prime minister after the presentation of a specialized report to the permanent committee of the sector concerned and the approval of the committee and the minister of culture. Private owners of listed antiquities are responsible for their preservation.
Listed mosques and churches in service and their collections are under the control of Islamic and Coptic sector.
Moreover, Egypt had adhered to the UNESCO convention, 1970 concerning the banning of illegal import and export of cultural property (presidential decree 114/1973).
The permanent committees of Egyptian antiquities, Islamic and Coptic antiquities as well as the board of trustees of museums are responsible for studying the problems of antiquities, urban and habitation problems and foreign missions undergoing excavation by applying the law 117 and are supported by the police of antiquities and the central police authorities. Place of environmental interest are cover3ed by the ministry of environment.
Inventories of antiquities in sites and museums are accomplished by two centre of Documentation, for Egyptian antiquities and for Islamic and Coptic antiquities through the information centre of SCA (computer) and by the collaboration with the centre of Information and Decision making of the Ministries council.
Documentation sheets are diffused and filled by local authorities together with photos and inventory exists only on administrative and scientific level; juridical intervention takes place only in case of illegal traffic. Inventories are now done by electronic data base systems and some data are already available (Egyptian Museum, etc.).
Restoration and enhancement of Egyptian cultural Heritage is essentially funded by public funds: the fees of entrance of archaeological sites, museums, exhibition.. etc. which are spontaneously transferred to the funding sector pool and by the agreement of the ministries of planning and finance, funds are allocated to the different sectors.
Together with public funds, there are international donations e.g. salvage of Nubian Monuments by the UNEXCO in the sixties (26 million dollars) and Nefertariy tomb by Getty ( 1 million dollar) foreign missions are asked by the law 117 to undergo restoration for their findings.
Fiscal facilities are now on the way and so private associations start now to contribute for the enhancement of National Heritage,
e.g. NEHRA (National Egyptian Heritage Revival association
officially recognized and published under the code 4612/March 2, 1999 and having funds from industrial and Business men is already involved in many Coptic sites for the celebration of he holy family trail in Egypt and their works are done by the approval and control of SCA authorities.