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According to the data published by the Ministry of Culture, in 2005 Lithuania had 106 museums (20 State museums, including 3 national, 15 public and 2 county museums; 61 museum belonging to different municipalities; 19 museums are mixed in their scope, structure or legal status and 6 of them belong toother types - private, etc.). Over 5.5 million items of cultural property – exhibits, valuable in archeological, historic, artistic, ethnic, religious, scientific, memorial and other aspects - are kept in the collections of Lithuanian museums. Each year, museum collections are added by new exhibits. According to statistics, the number of permanent and movable exhibitions in Lithuanian museums has been continuously growing. So is the number of museum visitors (in 2005 - 2.7 million visitors attended museums in Lithuania, and this was by 156 thousand visitors more than in 2004. ).

The administration of Lithuanian museums is performed by the Ministry of Culture. The Museum Council has been established in Lithuania to perform expertise and consultancy services creating policies and their implementation for Lithuanian museums. Lithuania has also founded the Lithuanian Museum Association and Lithuanian National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

The provisions of the Lithuanian Culture Policy have introduced a new approach to museum as an institution, i.e. activities of a contemporary museum are linked to the functions of culture, education and information. Cultural and artistic values collected in Lithuanian museums are commited to expansion and improvement of the services provided to museum visitors. Therefore, museums need to match the functions of property collection and preservation, to education of society and information dissemination to the public. Lithuanian museums are actively engaged in development of educational programs and implementation of different educational events.

The Ministry of Culture provides funding for different programs in relation to the following: museum development, restoration of museum items and scientific research related to Lithuanian culture. Since 2003, the Ministry has been allocateing approximately 380 thousand Litas on the annual basis to support exhibits of great Lithuanian language and culture, artistic, historical and memorial value for national and public museums. About 25 per cent of this amount goes to supplement the collections kept at the National Art Gallery, the structural unit of the Lithuanian Museum of Visual Arts. A special attention is paid to works by Lithuanian artists of the last decade of the 20th century. Plans are made to complete the reconstruction works of the National Art Gallery in 2007. Safety, i.e. fire and security alarm systems, have also been enhanced and improved continuously in national and republican museums of Lithuania. 700 thousand Litas is annually allocated to museum security systems renovation. The Ministry of Culture is a co-financer of the Lithuanian Integrated Museum Information System (LIMIS) designed for the registry and public presentation of collections kept in museums and prepared by the Lithuanian Museum of Visual Arts in cooperation with the company AB Alna, as well as the Internet Web pages on Lithuanian museums.

At present the Lithuanian museum modernization program is a work in progress. The program will create conditions for renewal and empowerment of museum infrastructure. The program is aimed at development of historical self-awareness of the society; quality renewal of museum activities; and creation of proper conditions for museums to collect, keep and promote objects of historical, literary, cultural, artistic, natural, scientific and technical heritage; as well as expanding possibilities for development the knowledge and creativity society. The program foresees modernization of the present museum material resources, adding new exhibits to museum collections, restoration of museum items (treasures), modernizing the cultural heritage of the country, using updated tools and technologies and ensuring public access to digitalized cultural heritage and information.

Lithuanian museums take active part in the cultural life of the country by organizing different festivals, concerts and special events called ‘Live History’, attracting a large number of visitors and participants. ‘Live Days of Archeology’, held in the Museum of Kernavė, ‘Medieval Feast‘ organized by Trakai Historical Museum, ‘Napoleon’s March across the Nemunas’, initiated by the Vytautas Magnus Museum of Warfare in Kaunas, and ‘Days of Crafts’, held in the Open Air Museum of Lithuania in Rumšiškės; Alytus Regional Studies Museum, and Aušra Museum in Šiauliai are just a few examples to mention. Lithuanian museums also take part at international events. One of the events of the kind is European Night of the Museums 2006. Lithuanian museums also plan to take an active part in the program “Vilnius, the European Cultural Capital 2009”.

2009 is the year of the Millennium. It marks theanniversary of the name of Lithuania first mentioned in historical annals. Reconstruction of the Monarchs’ Palace is a step towards the program to commemorate the Millennium Anniversary of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Monarchs’ Palace in Vilnius Lower Castle was a political, administration and cultural center of the time. Its history dates back to the 13th century. Within its ruins, archeologists discovered the specimen of oldest brickwork in Lithuania. Once, the Lithuanian Monarchs’ Palace was famous for its rich library, well-known in all Europe; besides, art collections and jewelry treasury. Opera was performedd here for the first time in the country’s history. The reconstruction works of the Monarchs’ Palace will be finished by 2009 – right before the Millennium Anniversary of Lithuania. The reconstructed Palace will be a center representing Lithuanian statehood, culture and education.

Working in close cooperation with the Polish Institute and cultural institutes of other European countries and diplomatic missions functioning in Lithuania, the Lithuanian National Museum of Visual Arts has prepared and has been implementing the program for presentation of Monarchs’ Palaces in other European countries, which includes meetings and scientific discussions with heads of museums and other cultural heritage protection institutions, situated in historical residences of other states in Europe, as well as researchers and experts. The implementation of the program commenced in October 2003, in a meeting with Hellmut Lorenz, the Expert of the Restoration Project of the Royal Palace in Berlin and Professor of History of Architecture, the University of Vienna (Austria). The implementation of the program will be finished in 2008, on the eve of the restoration of the Lithuanian Monarchs’ Palace. The program is of educational and scientific character. On one hand, it will present a description of activities of museums and other cultural heritage institutions situated in other historical residences of European monarchs. It will also explain to the Lithuanian public at large the sense and significance of the activities of the institutions of the kind functioning in modern societies. The program also aims at presentation of the European practices of historical evolution, restoration, full or partial reconstruction of royal, ducal and other representative residences, preparation of thematic permanent expositions and temporary exhibitions, implementation of educational programs and contemporary ways of work with visitors, organization of representative events on the State level, as well as cultural and music projects and information programs to persons taking part in preparation of the Lithuanian Monarchs’ Palace Reconstruction Project; researchers interior and exposition designers. This program provides an opportunity to get oneself familiarized with the European practice and experience of implementation of similar projects, i.e. of tailored programming of historical residences; ways to include modern cultural heritage promotion and up-to-dating functions mainly in the neighboring countries and countries traditionally maintaining close relations with Lithuania). Moreover, it will ensure the most advantageous solutions to a gamut of issues related to the reconstruction of the Lithuanian Monarchs’ Palace a deeper insight into new methodological provisions, and will be given highly qualified consultancy and expertise.

Museums, galleries and exhibition halls are introduced in more detail in English, German and French on the Internet Website www.muziejai.lt.