A museum (from Latin, musēum and this, in turn, from the Greek, Μουσείον) is a public or private institution, permanent, for profit or non-profit, at the service of society and its development, and open to the public, which acquires, preserves, researches, communicates, exhibits, for study and educational purposes, collections of art, scientific, among others, always with cultural value, according to the International Council of Museums (ICOM).2 The science that studies them is called museology, the technique of their management museography and their administration, museonomy.

Museums exhibit collections, that is, sets of objects and information that reflect some aspect of human existence or its environment. These types of collections, almost always valuable, have existed since ancient times: objects of worship or offerings were kept in temples that from time to time were exhibited to the public so that they could contemplate and admire them. The same thing happened with the valuable objects and works of art collected by some people of the aristocracy in Greece and Rome; they had them exposed in their homes, in their gardens and proudly taught them to friends and visitors. It was in the Renaissance when the name of "museum" was given as it is understood today to buildings expressly dedicated to the conservation and exhibition of their permanent collections. On the other hand, there are art galleries, where paintings and sculptures are shown, in temporary exhibitions, without necessarily having permanent collections. Its name derives from the galleries (of palaces and castles), which were the spacious lobbies with an elongated shape, with many windows or open and supported by columns or pillars, intended for moments of rest and the exhibition of ornamental objects, often works of art.

After World War I (1918), the International Museum Office emerged, which articulated the museographic criteria whose programs and technical solutions are in force today. In 1945 the International Council of Museums (ICOM) was born and in 1948 the periodical Museum appears through which the activities of museums around the world are disseminated to this day. (Source: Paragraphs of the description of Wikipedia..).