Privately owned museums to get aid, supervision

The State will strengthen supervision of privately owned museums while also providing them with more support through favorable policies in taxation and subsidies.

The museums, opened by individuals or social organizations, are urged to adopt management councils and complete auditing systems, said Guan Qiang, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. Guan spoke on Thursday at a news conference in Beijing regarding a new State directive, released on Monday, encouraging the development of privately owned museums.

An investigation covering about 600 privately owned museums nationwide showed that three-quarters of them had not properly registered their collections as corporate properties, according to Guan. He emphasized that artifacts in such museums are not the personal property of the operators, but of the museum. Half of the museums also lacked proper financial management, he said.