In the past, art lovers considered old musical instruments to be precious objects worth preserving. The staff of the Ptuj museum have collected and exhibited instruments since the museum's foundation. The first collection of instruments was donated to the Ptuj Museum by Professor Franz Ferk in 1895. Today the collection comprises about three-hundred exhibits, instruments intended for playing artistic and folk music, and it is the richest collection of its kind in Slovenia. Exhibited are typical instruments of the middle classe, the aristocracy and the Church from the 17th century onwards.
Individual exhibits are the products of famous instrument makers (builders) from Vienna, Graz, Prague and elsewhere, and some og them are the work of exellent domestic craftsmen.
Individual thematic sections illustrate respectively, the brass band of the town guard, the more recent municipal brass band, wind, string, pluck and keyboard instruments for chamber music and solo performances.