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ulture director-general at the Culture and Education Ministry, Hilmar Farid, has said of the 400 museums operating in the country, only 15 percent actually open their doors to visitors.

Hilmar said a large number of museums suffered a wide range of problems, from poor management to lack of curators, which prevented them from offering services to history buffs.

To complicate the problem, Hilmar said the government did not have enough funding to build the capacity of museum curators.

He said the directorate-general relied on local governments to keep museums open. He also urged museums that open to the public to offer programs that could draw larger crowds.

“They should put on display their core collections. Something that most people know about,” Hilmar said as quoted by tempo.co.

He said the ministry had also proposed museum collections be displayed in multiple locations.

Museums in the country have long struggled with low visitor numbers despite not charging entrance fees. Jakarta museums have in recent years created programs to attract middle-income visitors.