Snell made the offer to Te Papa in the wake of the fake Olympic singlet debacle.
Te Papa made a successful bid of $122,500 at an auction last month for what it thought was Snell's singlet from the Tokyo Olympics. It turned out to be a fake and the museum did not go through with the sale.
"In the heat of the moment and feeling very flattered about what Te Papa did I had made the comment that if they're prepared to go that far on my singlet they they deserve to have the medals to go with it,'' Snell told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report.
"If they are interested [I] would probably want them to make a proposal on how they might want to be using such memorabilia.''
Snell won three Olympic gold medals - one in Rome in 1960 and two at the Tokyo Games in 1964 .
One of his medals from Tokyo is on display the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in Dunedin and its chief executive, Ron Palenski, said Snell's reservations about Te Papa were that the museum did not have a good track record of telling New Zealand sporting stories.
"I have had email discussions with Peter over the years about his medals,'' Palenski said.
"He felt that Te Papa, as the national museum, should be this repository of his stuff. But he would have reservations if this stuff was not on display because he believes that all New Zealanders should be able to see it.
"What it would require would be a change in attitude or a change in policy from Te Papa to better acknowledge New Zealand sporting heritage.
"But, in the meantime, if Te Papa don't want to do that, we'd be happy to be a repository for his, or anyone else's, gold medals.''
