What happened to Lorenzo Ghiberti’s works made from precious metals and rare stones?

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Bronze self-portrait of Lorenzo Ghiberti in relief, set within ornate floral and geometric decoration on the Gates of Paradise at the Florence Baptistery. — Lorenzo Ghiberti Self-portrait by Lorenzo Ghiberti, detail from *Gates of Paradise*, 1425–52; gilded bronze doors formerly on the east side of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, and now on display in Opera del Duomo Museum, Florence.

Unfortunately, many of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s works crafted from precious metals and rare stones have been lost to history.

While Ghiberti was highly skilled in these materials—having been trained as a goldsmith by his stepfather, Bartolo di Michele—examples of his work in this medium, such as the morse (a clasp for a cope) and miter he fashioned for Pope Martin V in 1419, have disappeared. Because these items were often subject to the changing needs of their owners or the political and economic shifts of the time, they did not survive, unlike his major bronze commissions like the Gates of Paradise.123