This article attempts to trace the transformation of things from the world of artifacts and the appearance of a museum item in culture. Probably, the concept of an artifact in its ontological and axiological essence can be compared with memory and its various forms, for example, cultural heritage. As a result of secondary actualization, a world of objects is distinguished from the world of artifacts. In the world of objects a thing loses its sacred meanings of syncretic consciousness and, acquiring new pragmatic characteristics, creates conditions for allocating a separate space for preserving the lost culture - a museum. The article considers the possibility of using the methods of humanitarian knowledge to preserve and translate into modern culture the historical information hidden in a museum object.