Swiss Civil Code

¹ Own­er­less nat­ur­al spe­ci­mens and an­tiquit­ies of sci­entif­ic value are the prop­erty of the can­ton on whose ter­rit­ory they are found.⁶¹⁵

^1bis Such ob­jects must not be ali­en­ated without the con­sent of the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies. They may not be pur­chased in good faith or ac­quired through ad­verse pos­ses­sion. There is no pre­script­ive peri­od on the can­ton’s right to re­cov­er them.⁶¹⁶

² The own­er of the land on which such ob­jects are found is ob­liged to per­mit their ex­cav­a­tion in ex­change for com­pens­a­tion for the dam­age caused.

³ The find­er, and in the case of treas­ure trove also the own­er is en­titled to an ap­pro­pri­ate find­er’s re­ward not ex­ceed­ing one-half of the value of the find.