Việt Nam currently has over 120 major museum institutions in which to date some 4 million objects have been inventoried and preserved. Five of these institutions are National Museums managed by the Ministry of Culture and Information, namely the Hồ Chí Minh Museum (Bảo tàng Hồ Chí Minh), the Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution (Viện Bảo tàng Cách mạng Việt Nam), the Việt Nam Fine Art Museum (Bảo tàng Mỹ thuật Việt Nam) and the Việt Nam History Museum (Viện Bảo tàng Lịch sử Việt Nam) in Hà Nội and the Museum of the Cultures of Việt Nam's Ethnic Groups (Bảo tàng Văn hóa các Dân tộc Việt Nam) in Thái Nguyên. Some 30 others fall under the management of various other government offices, mass organisations and agencies, including the Ministry of Defence (People's Army of Việt Nam), the Ministry of Industry, the Việt Nam Academy of Social Sciences, the Vietnamese Women’s Association, the Pasteur Institute, the Oceanographic Institute, the Hội An Centre for Monuments Management and Preservation, the Huế Historic Monuments Conservation Centre and various tertiary training colleges. However, by far the greatest number of Việt Nam’s museums - more than 90 in number - fall under the direct management of the country's 63 provincial and municipal authorities.

The National Cultural Heritage Department (formerly the Museums and Conservation Department) of the Ministry of Culture and Information is assigned responsibility for managing the five national museums which fall under the control of the Culture and Information Ministry and for providing professional guidance in the fields of conservation and museology at national level.

A four-year graduate training programme in conservation and museology was launched within the History Faculty of the Hà Nội National University during the 1970s; in the late 1980s this programme was transferred to a dedicated Faculty of Conservation and Museum Studies at the Hà Nội University of Culture (Trường Đại học Văn hóa Hà Nội).

In 2001 the government passed a new Cultural Heritage Law which seeks to provide a comprehensive new legal framework for the protection of the nation’s physical culture, traditions and historic artefacts. This important piece of legislation provides for the comprehensive inventorying of cultural and historic sites, identifying those that are endangered, restoring those that are in need of repair, and at the same time providing for more effective regulation of construction projects on on near such sites with a view to curbing unregulated modification of traditional architecture.

Significantly, the new Cultural Heritage Law defines four types of museum - national, specialist, provincial/municipal and private, thereby for the first time permitting the setting up of private museums, either independently or through joint ventures with foreign partners. Accordingly over the past two years a number of new private museums have been established, including the 'Back to the Source' Cultural Village in Huế, the museum at Diệp Đồng Nguyên Traditional Medicine Pharmacy in Hội An, and the Đức Minh Art Gallery-Private Museum in Hồ Chí Minh City.

The Cultural Heritage Law also defines three categories of museum according to the size of their collections and modes of operation, offers an overall legal framework for antique trading and provides for the recognition of citizens who donate works of art or uncover and declare cultural artefacts and relics.

Shortly after the Cultural Heritage Law had been promulgated, the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) revised its Master Plan for Tourism Development in Việt Nam until 2010 (1995) to reflect a focus on the conservation of the natural and cultural resources utilised by the tourist sector.

Make direct contact with organisations and individuals working in the heritage sector through our KEY CONTACTS database.