The Museum of Kosovo lent in early 1999, under its Serbian director, a collection of 700 artifacts for an exhibit in Belgrade. Those artifacts have not been returned. The Department of Culture and the Museum of Kosovo are making effort to have the collection returned. These strategies should take into account the needs of the nation, and the museum, as a dynamic vehicle of those goals, should be permanently updated. It is common at the birth of a new nation to create an institution that can display in an all-encompassing exhibit the material culture found in the territory.
National museums accomplish that role.
In this paper I have argued that the public and social impact of the development of national museums is, in the cases reviewed, limited by the priorities of its contents. The topics of the exhibits are often misguided and do not reflect the needs of the country. In the two cases reviewed, archaeology, an important component in such museums, is neither an immediate nor a feasible priority. Furthermore, a logical plan for the national museum is impinged by cases where the directorship of the museum is in hands of archaeologists. This will prevent a rational use of the resources for the more dire needs of the nation.