Lenggong archaeology museum now a gallery

When is a museum not a museum? When its a gallery!

The Lenggong Museum is now a Gallery!

The Lenggong archaeological museum in Perak, Muzium Arkeologi, has changed its name to Galeri Arkeologi. In other words, it is no longer a museum, but a gallery.

This is probably because Jabatan Warisan Negara took over Muzium Lenggong from Jabatan Muzium Malaysia on 7 August 2012. This came after the Lenggong Valley was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site on 30 June 2012.

Since this take over, all the road signs and signs at the museum are being replaced, with the word museum changed for gallery.

The brass sign on the museum wall, signed by the Sultan has now gone

July (above) and September (below)

The main sign on the outer wall of the museum compound was actually removed earlier, first photo taken in 2003, 2nd photo in July 2012 -

The road signs have been covered over with the new name -

The new Jabatan Warisan signs -

On my most recent visit at the end of Sept I saw 3 new huge posters on an outer wall. Even those had the word 'musuem' covered over

However I wonder if anyone has bothered to check the meaning of the word gallery. It has two different meanings, one related to content, and one related to structure :
A gallery is a room or building for the display or sale of works of art, or for the exhibition of artistic work. Alternatively gallery can mean a long room or passage forming a portico or colonnade.
Whereas a museum is a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.

It seems to me that gallery is an inappropriate word for the Lenggong archaeological artifacts. It may even suggest that the exhibits are for sale!

See more on Lenggong Museum.

On 4 Oct 2012 I had a letter published in The Star about this change of name from museum to gallery.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission