The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world. Although it's set in New York City, millions of people also take part in The Met experience online. The museum was founded in 1870 and its statement of purpose is to collect, study, conserve, and present significant works of art across all times and cultures. They have an expansive collection of jewelry objects from ancient times up until the present. More than 200 of these jewels and ornaments were featured in “The Body Transformed” exhibition, which focused on the meaning of jewelry. The Byzantine bracelet is one of the pieces featured in the collection. Its origins date back to 500-700. This piece is elaborately decorated with gold, silver, pearl, amethyst, sapphire, opal, glass, quartz, and emerald plasma. The luminous beauty of pearls was highly prized in the Byzantine world.

This Metropolitan Museum of Art has a full permanent collection that features pieces mainly from the modern era, but there are several current opportunities to view the Museum of Arts and Design’s most interesting jewelry objects. An ongoing exhibition, Highlights from the Jewelry Collection, features pieces by 84 artists in a variety of media which are presented in interactive drawers. In addition to this long-term show, in 2018 the museum displayed the exhibition From the Collection: GOLD, which explores the significance of the material for objects beyond jewelry such as religious icons and symbols of power. This is one of the incredible jewelry museums and exhibits.

• Location: New York City