Private museums outnumber state museums, a first in Turkey's history

The number of private museums that belong to natural and legal entities in Turkey exceeds the number of state museums.According to the information obtained from the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums officials by Anadolu Agency (AA) reporter, there are 192 museums within Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism as opposed to 193 private museums. As of the year 2000, Turkey had 89 private museums. However, this number reached 108 in 2007.

The number of private museums was 124 in 2008 followed by 139 in 2009, 146 in 2010, 157 in 2011, 174 in 2012, 184 in 2013 and 193 as of 2014. The number of visitors has also increased in line with the number of private museums. According to the data, 5.5 million people visited museums in 2011 while this number increased to 8 million in 2012. Ministerial museums mostly focus on archeology and ethnography, as private museums vary from such topics as arts, kitchen culture, agriculture, stockbreeding, media and industry. Regarding the number of private museums, Istanbul leads with 46 museums followed by 32 in Ankara and 14 in İzmir. Bursa, Gaziantep, Çanakkale, Kütahya, Eskişehir, Balıkesir and Aydın have over five private museums each. Forty-one provinces in Turkey have private museums since the ministry encourages and supports these private managements.

The "Cultural Investments and Initiative Promotion Law" that entered into force in 2004 encourages local and foreign legal entities to cater to the cultural needs of individuals and society as well as produce art and cultural values. Within this scope, the ministry incites legal entities to build, remodel and manage places where artistic events take place along with collecting, documenting, archiving, publishing, training, promoting and conducting research on cultural values and abstract cultural heritage. Hence, these legal entities get discounts on taxes, insurance premiums and energy expenses. Some of the private museums in Turkey are
listed as follows:

Istanbul: The Basilica Cistern, The Museum of Innocence, Florya Model Plane Museum, Archers Lodge Museum, Toy Museum, Count Szechenyi Fire Department Museum, Pera Museum, BJK Museum, Miniatürk Mini Turkey Park and Orhan Kemal Museum.

Ankara: MTA Natural History Museum, Çengelhan Rahmi Koç Museum, PTT Stamp Museum, Children's Museum, Industry and Technology Museum, Abstracy Cultural Heritage Museum, Çankaya Atatürk Mansion Museum, Ulucanlar Prison Museum and Turkish Bath Museum.

İzmir: Ahmet Piriştina City Archive and Museum, Joy and Caricature Museum, Paper and Book Arts Museum, Radio and Democracy Museum
and Mask Museum.