A two-year painstaking job is to be taken in hand shortly, to restore one of Malta’s oldest portable organs, held at Cospicua parish church.

The work is estimated to be completed in 2009. Robert Buhagiar, an engineer who has extensive experience in the restoration of old Maltese organs, will be carrying out the works, which are sponsored solely by APS Bank.

In an event held at the bank’s head office in Floriana to mark the formal presentation of the sponsorship, Prof. E. P. Delia, APS Bank chairman said the parish of Cospicua had an extensive archive of old Maltese music and it was in this archive that some of Malta’s oldest music was discovered.

He pointed out that although the state of conservation of the organ was very poor, with parts of the outer wooden casing totally broken, one could still see at a glance that the instrument was a national jewel.