Amazing beauty brooch of the Nibelung era and carpet from Bayeux during the early Middle Ages; the legendary "treasures of Priam" and the incomprehensible "gold of Bactria"; the Mughal legacy and myriad riches of the Iranian shahs; the vanished treasures of Lobengula and the "truly monstrous size" of the Vatican sapphires. Interest in relics, both historical and religious, does not weaken over time, but flares up with renewed vigor.