National museum of Slovenia

The National museum of Slovenia, founded as the Provincial Museum of Carniola in 1821, is both the central national museum and the leading institution in the field of the research of the cultural heritage. Its status as research institution was formally established in 1992. Research has always been an essential part of the Museum’s activities; at first, the interest of the staff has been focused mainly on archaeology and numismatic; since the 1970’s, however, these activities also included the history and the decorative arts. Nowadays, the Museum is involved in basic and applied research in the fields of archaeology, numismatic, history, history of applied arts, conservation and restoration of museum’s objects. The scientific staff of the Museum includes 23 researchers. The scientific research of cultural heritage deals with the material sources of culture and civilisation. For the Slovene history, they are no less important than the written sources. The methods and results of the scientific work are also important for other fields of Museum’s work, such as connoisseurship or the building of the central database of museums objects and, of course, exhibitions. The National Museum of Slovenia was among the first institutions in Slovenia to introduce a tight connection between the research methods from the fields of the humanities and the natural sciences; the latter, for example, can be used to verify the results of the former.