To the issue of determining the place of private museums in museum studying classification

Some issues of domestic museums classification are actualized in the article in connection with determining of the private museums' place. A private museum is interpreted by the author as a set of non-commercial establishments, including museums and museum-type establishments created by private owners' efforts with the aim of authentic collections actualization. A private museum is a constantly developing form of culture due to the changing demands of society which determines the necessity of the reconsidering of their classification. Having considered some traditional and alternative classification patterns the author found that the specificity of private museums stock collections and the character of their activity do not let them be fully the part of classification system settled in museum studying. At the same time private museums need to give up none of the already settled classification systems but need to apply alternative ones. Specialized classification may be used in private museums classification as well as classification principles according the character of stored legacy, social purposes, museum morphology. Nowadays the making of the specialized classification scheme for private museums does not seem possible due to the ongoing process of their formation.