The Lithuanian cultural institutions system comprises 4 kinds of institutions: national, state, municipal and private, i.e. established by private persons or their organisations. These kinds of institutions are present in all main areas of culture: museums, theatres, libraries, cultural centres, etc.
Almost all national and state cultural institutions have the legal status of budgetary institutions, which is defined in the Law on Budgetary Institutions (1995, new edition 2024). According to the Law, the budgetary institution is a public legal entity with limited civil liability, which performs state or municipal functions and is maintained from the appropriations of the state or municipal budgets, as well as from the budgets of the State Social Insurance Fund, Compulsory Health Insurance Fund and other state monetary funds. Authorities exercising the rights and obligations of the owner approve the statutes of a budgetary institution, appoint and dismiss the head, decide on the reorganisation or liquidation of the budgetary institution, take a decision regarding the establishment of a branch of a budgetary institution and the termination of its activities, etc.
In 2025, there were 10 national cultural institutions in Lithuania: 3 theatres (the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, and National Kaunas Drama Theatre), 4 museums (National Museum of Lithuania, Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art), 1 library (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania), 1 concert organisation (Lithuanian national Philharmonic Society), and 1 broadcasting company (Lithuanian National Radio and Television). National institutions themselves manage the appropriations that are allocated to them each year by the government in accordance with the Law on the Approval of Financial Indicators of the State Budget and Municipal Budgets, which is adopted by the Seimas each year.
State cultural institutions are financed through the Ministry of Culture, i.e. the Ministry allocates their appropriations according to its budget plan for the respective year. In 2025, cultural services are provided by 39 state cultural institutions under the purview of the Ministry: 12 museums, 10 theatres, 6 libraries, 6 concert organisations, 1 arts centre, 1 cultural centre, 1 park and 2 cultural reserves. There are also four state museums that are financed by other Ministries – the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Environment. Most of these state cultural institutions are concentrated in the three largest cities of Lithuania.
Local authorities are responsible for the financing and maintenance of local cultural institutions and cultural heritage. They have the right to establish or abolish cultural institutions of local importance and finance them through appropriations from the local budget. Every municipality in Lithuania has at least a local museum, library and cultural centre. Most of these organisations have a legal form of budgetary or public institutions, and their owner is the municipality. According to the data of the National Library, in 2024, there were 1115 municipal public libraries, 934 of them were located in rural areas. LIMIS (Information System of Lithuanian Museums) provides information on 63 municipal museums, although according to the data of the Official Statistics Portal, in 2024, there 54 municipal museums in Lithuania. The number of museums fluctuates due to changes in their administration – in some municipalities, separate museums are merged and become a single administrative unit with several branches. According to the data provided by municipalities themselves on their websites about their cultural institutions, in 2025, there were in Lithuania 10 municipal theatres, 6 concert organisations and 146 cultural centres with 462 structural subunits.
Data on private cultural institutions in Lithuania are not systematically registered. According to the Official Statistics Portal, in 2024, there were 53 private theatres and 54 private museums in Lithuania. However, the Register of Legal Entities provides information on 120 registered organisations with the word “theatre” in their name that have the legal form of NGO, individual enterprise, etc. The Directory of Private Museums provides data on 109 private museums. LIMIS (Information System of Lithuanian Museums) provides information on 85 private museums and 34 institutional/departmental museums, such as the Railway Museum of Lithuanian Railway company, Lithuanian Police Museum, Money Museum of the Bank of Lithuania, etc. Some museums have several owners, and because of that, it is complicated to attribute them to one category.
In the field of cultural heritage protection and use, all three types of ownership – state, municipal, and private – are also present. According to data from the Register of Cultural Properties of Lithuania, in 2025, there were 2,355 immovable cultural heritage objects (buildings and sites) that held the status of national cultural monuments and were protected by the state. An additional 8,156 objects were designated as state-protected heritage sites, while 134 objects were protected by municipalities. A further 13,288 objects were listed in the register but did not yet hold any formal protection status. However, no data is available on how many of these properties are privately owned.
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