Most Valuable Museum Artifacts and Priceless Treasures Around the World

The Most Valuable Museum Exhibits on Earth

There’s no final answer to what the most valuable museum exhibits are. You can't slap a price tag on most of them because they’ve never been sold. They're not going up for auction. They're not going anywhere. These pieces sit in public collections, often owned by governments.

Still, we have a few clues. Some items have estimated values. Others have been appraised for insurance. A handful made headlines when gifted or acquired. So while we can’t know for sure, we can take a real look at a few that stand at the top of the list.

 

£1 Billion in Chinese Porcelain at the British Museum

Toward the end of 2024, the British Museum made headlines. A £1 billion gift came in. Not cash. Ceramics. The collection came from the Sir Percival David Foundation and had already been on long-term loan to the museum. Now, it’s officially theirs.

This collection started small back in 1913. Sir Percival David bought just four pieces to begin with. But he came from a banking family and had serious money. Over the years, he built one of the best Chinese porcelain collections in the world. Outside the old imperial palaces in China, no other collection matches it.

The most important part is the Ru Ware. Only a tiny amount of it survives today. It's rare 12th-century porcelain, known for its soft glaze and pale color. Around 20 percent of what’s left on Earth is now in this single collection. Only the National Palace Museum in Taiwan has more.

Sir Percival passed away in 1964, but his obsession lives on in 1,700 individual pieces. Divide the full £1 billion across the lot and you’re looking at around £588,000 per item. That’s the scale we’re dealing with.

 

The Mona Lisa Might Be Worth $850 Million

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the most famous painting on the planet. It's hard to imagine a more iconic artwork. The portrait of Lisa del Giocondo ended up in France during the final years of da Vinci’s life.

King Francis I wanted to build a cultural empire. He invited Leonardo to France and, by all accounts, built a friendship with the artist. Da Vinci died there, and one of his greatest paintings stayed behind. It’s believed Francis bought the Mona Lisa for about 4,000 crowns, though records from that time aren’t clear.

Since then, it’s never been sold again. It belonged to the French monarchy first, and now to the French state. At one point, it was stolen and recovered, but otherwise, it hasn’t moved.

In 1962, it was insured for $100 million. Adjust that for inflation, and today the Mona Lisa would be worth around $850 million. Some experts might argue for more, but either way, no museum is ever going to part with it.

 

Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi Sold for $450 Million

In 2017, Salvator Mundi was auctioned for $450 million. It became the most expensive painting ever sold. The buyer was linked to a new Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, funded by the country’s culture ministry. At the time, this was a huge deal. It was the only known Leonardo da Vinci painting still in private hands. Now, it’s technically part of a public collection. Or maybe not.

There’s still a lot of debate around Salvator Mundi. Experts don’t fully agree on how much of it Leonardo painted himself. Some think only parts of it are his. Others believe it's all his work. The painting had been lost for years and resurfaced in poor condition. In 2005, it was bought for just over $1,000 because people thought it was a copy. After that, it went through major restoration. Scholars reassessed it. The attribution changed, and its value skyrocketed.

The buyer listed at auction was Prince Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud from Abu Dhabi. But the painting now sits in the private collection of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A Saudi museum meant to show that it hasn’t opened yet. So while the painting has a home, no one knows when or where the public will get to see it.

 

The Hope Diamond Valued at £350 Million

The Hope Diamond has a long, strange history. Right now, it's housed at the Smithsonian in Washington. Its estimated value is £350 million. The way it got there is just as interesting as the stone itself.

In 1958, Harry Winston, a jeweller from New York, donated it to the museum. He mailed it in a plain box, wrapped in brown paper, using regular registered mail. That’s how a supposedly cursed diamond, worth hundreds of millions, made its way into a public collection.

Winston bought it from the McLean family. They were mining tycoons and socialites, and they owned the gem for years. The McLeans got it from Pierre Cartier, who sold it to them for $300,000. That low price might have been because of all the bad luck stories surrounding the diamond.

The stone itself is a deep blue and weighs 45.52 carats. It was first discovered in India and brought to Europe by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1666. Over time, it passed through many hands, possibly including British royalty. Each sale raised its profile and added new legends.

Today, the Hope Diamond is known just as much for its backstory as its beauty. It’s one of the most famous jewels in the world. And while some still talk about its curse, its place in history, and its value, keep growing.

 

The £123 Million Hotung Gift to the British Museum

In 2022, the British Museum received one of its largest ever donations. The late Sir Joseph Hotung left behind a collection worth £123 million. It focused on Chinese jade, porcelain, and metalwork. Most of it was already on display under a loan agreement. Now, the museum owns it all.

Hotung died in 2021. He was born in Hong Kong into a powerful Eurasian family. His relatives owned parts of the Hong Kong Hotel, shipping docks, stock exchanges, and more. The Hotung name is still found all over the city.

His collection centered around 246 Chinese jades, covering every major dynasty. He served on the museum’s board and had a deep interest in Chinese art. His broader collection was huge, too. In 2022, an auction of his European art brought in over £100 million.

This donation isn't just large in numbers. It's important because of the historical depth and range of the pieces. Hotung didn't just collect art. He preserved culture.

 

The Waddesdon Bequest and the Priceless Holy Thorn Reliquary

The British Museum holds a collection that money can't touch. The Waddesdon Bequest includes about 300 items. One of them is the Holy Thorn Reliquary, once believed to contain a thorn from the Crown of Thorns placed on Jesus during his crucifixion.

The reliquary was bought in 1239. At the time, the price was so high that it exceeded half of the French state’s entire yearly budget. That alone shows how valuable it was considered. Even if you don’t believe in the relic itself, the craftsmanship and materials make it a major treasure.

The full collection came to the museum in 1898, a gift from Baron Ferdinand Rothschild. He built Waddesdon Manor, a grand French-style estate in Buckinghamshire, where he kept these pieces. His family was wealthy, with real financial power across Europe. But even with that status, he was deeply involved in collecting rare medieval and Renaissance objects.

Back in the 1800s, this type of art wasn’t fashionable. Some items were picked up for low prices. Others were handed over in banking deals. There was even a risk that some of these historical pieces could have been melted down for the gold and silver. Rothschild preserved them.

The collection was worth £400,000 in 1898. That would be around £45 million today using inflation calculators. But that number doesn’t mean much now. The value of the art, the history behind it, and its permanent place in the museum make it impossible to price.

You can still see the Waddesdon Bequest displayed as a complete set. It's kept in its own dedicated room, just like Rothschild asked for in his will. The collection is one of the few museum exhibits truly beyond the reach of the market.