One of a Pair of Gold Earrings

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the 500s and early 600s, when the Avars were regularly receiving enormous payments from the Byzantine Empire, virtually all free men and women wore distinctive large earrings fashioned from the pure gold of melted Byzantine coins.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art