On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Neck Ring
[The Celts] amass a great amount of gold, which is used for ornament not only by the women but also by the men. . . . A striking practice is found among the Celts, in connection with the sacred precincts of the gods; for in the temples and precincts made consecrate in their land a great amount of gold has been deposited as a dedication to the gods, and not a native of the country ever touches it.
— Diodorus of Sicily, a Greek historian writing about 20 b.c.
These two neck rings and the set of nine coins minted by a local Celtic tribe known as the Nervii were part of an assemblage of gold objects placed in a pot near a spring in Belgium, probably about 50 b.c. It seems likely that they were gathered as a ritual offering of treasured objects, with the neck rings never intended to be worn by a living person.
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