The Lute Society have received this reply to their concerns;

Thank you for your recent e-mail, which I have forwarded to the Director as you requested. We do understand the widespread concern about the future of the musical instruments in this collection but I am sure that you will understand that, in such a large institution, development plans cannot address all parts of the collection at the same time.

I can assure you that we are working very actively to ensure that the collection remains accessible to the public and to specialists, working with the Horniman Museum and the Edinburgh University Collection, as well as reviewing the collection for inclusion of items in galleries here at the Museum. Part of my work at our Olympia store this week has, indeed, to push forward our plans for high quality storage of the instruments that will allow of easy access for scholars to those pieces which do not go on loan. We have already begun work to clear areas of our furniture store which will be fitted out specially to take the instruments, so that they will be available for students and scholars again from the end of June 2010.

I hope this addresses some of your concerns and underlines that we are taking all possible steps to ensure that the collection remains available.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Medlam
Deputy Keeper
Furniture, Textiles and Fashion Department