The challenge of the conservation/restoration of ethnographic objects (including extra-European instruments) has to do with their degree of integration, or lack thereof, into our system of cultural values. The originality of these objects draws on the questions they cause us to pose through their characteristics (form, materials, etc.). A consensus needs to be found between what these objects represent in the societies which created them and the image that these objects give to conservation/ restoration personnel and to the general public. Therefore, when working with these instruments, it is essential to embrace a study and conservation approach, with the curator concerned by the former, and conservators/restorers by the latter.