There are three categories of treatment for an historic musical instrument: the instrument can be maintained in its current playing state, it can be restored to a conjectured previous condition, or it can be preserved in the condition in which it now stands, unplayable but with the unique information it possesses intact. These categories are termed here currency, restitution and preservation, and each possesses unique features that characterise it. A key future role of museum conservators of musical instruments will be to show to the museum- and concert-going public that there can, indeed be a real working space where all aspects of the musical instrument -- aesthetic, hisorical, social and technical - are weighed and evaluated in their context before action is taken.