Private museums call for more guidance

Private museums in Viet Nam still operate without supporting policies although their operations were legalised under the Heritage Law in 2001.
Vice-chairman of the Cultural Heritage Association, Dang Van Bai, said that the future of the museum sector in Viet Nam depended on private museums because they had helped create an interest in the past.
However, at present there are only nine private museums in the nation compared to hundreds of publics ones.
Deputy director of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Ministry for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Le Thi Minh Ly, said thousands of private collections across the country could qualify as museums, but their owners hesitated to open because of the lack of legal protection.
Painter Vu Duc Hieu, director of the private museum Muong Culture Space in northern Hoa Binh Province said that his museum operated under the Enterprise Law because of the lack of regulations.
To get tax codes enabling him to sell tickets, he had to set up a company regardless of the fact that he was given a licence for a museum.
For example, while it was legal for individuals to establish a museum if they had enough equipment to protect relics and serve the public, this had not been defined.
Ly said most museums were about social history, especially the wars against the French and the Americans, and very few carried displays on natural or technical sciences.
Provincial museums often provided few exhibitions and had unattractive displays.
Ly said museums should raise funds by providing other services, such as food and shopping, but this was difficult to apply in Viet Nam,
For example, ethnological museums should develop services and products representing traditional folk arts, geography museums should have products such as gems, minerals and fossils.
"Many museums sell the same souvenirs when they could take advantage of their own cultural features to create products," Ly said.
However, to develop more services, museums had to get permission from local authorities, including People's Councils, but few were open to change.
The Viet Nam History Museum, for example, could provide expertise services for students and researchers, director of the museum, Pham Quoc Quan, said.
The National Department of Cultural Heritage is drafting a circular about setting up private museums that is expected to tackle the problems.