I went to London last year and visited the V&A with the specific intention of seeing their musical instruments (in fact that was one of my reasons for visiting London in the first place). I found they only opened the musical instrument gallery about one day a month, and weren´t going to when I was there.

No way in hell do I intend to visit the V&A again, ever (a vast collection of posh furniture in appalling taste, with some moderately interesting temporary displays that could have been put on anywhere).

I am in Barcelona at the moment and visited the musical instrument museum here (at the L'Auditori complex) a couple of days ago. It has about the same amount of visible stuff as the Horniman but is VASTLY better organized and displayed. They´ve really gone for it and made a resource which is a first-rate resource for everyone from primary school children to research scholars.

The Reid musical instrument museum in Edinburgh is somewhat more comprehensible than the Horniman but they have no space for anything more. It´s got only a tenth of the space of the Museu de Musica.

Obviously the V&A needs to be relieved of its musical instruments, and of the corresponding funding and staff positions - they simply aren´t doing a useful job. I don´t believe there is any institution in the UK in a position to take over. Perhaps they should just ask the Generalitat de Catalunya to take the lot.