Fears held for museum safety

The public has raised concerns about the preservation and safety of an historic building in Hue City that has served as a provincial museum for 30 years.
"There have been many challenges for us to exhibit the relics in the narrow, improper spaces of this monument," said Do Huu Ha, the museum’s deputy director. "We worry about the safety of artefacts made of paper, ceramics, bamboo and fabric."
Once serving as the Royal National University under the Nguyen dynasty, or Quoc Tu Giam, the building is now known as the Thua Thien Hue Province’s Historical and Revolutionary Museum.
When Typhoon Ketsana hit in September, museum workers had to cover many of the artefacts with plastic bags to protect them from rain falling from the ceiling.
Cao Huy Hung, the museum’s director, said more than 20,000 artefacts were archeaologically valuable and showed the province’s formation and development.
He added that time and weather had degraded the building, which is an important monument belonging to the last royal dynasty in Viet Nam, and it needed to be repaired.
In 2001, the former Department of Culture and Information requested a new land plot for the museum, and the provincial People’s Committee in 2008 allocated an area in Ngu Binh Planning Zone to the province’s southern part.
The People’s Committee said a new museum could be built within 10 years, but Hung said the artefacts and the museum needed urgent care.
Museum authorities, however, said the zone was too far from Hue’s centre, and most of the infrastructure in the zone was scheduled to be completed over a 20-year period.