In 1930, Time magazine reported a transaction regarding the oldest and most renowned collection of medieval art.

The Guelph Treasure, composed of objects gathered for centuries by the Guelph family — in particular Duke Henry the Lion, who died in 1195 — was on the market.

Time reported the then-owners "sold six pieces to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and invited Cleveland's museum director, plump, polite little William M. Milliken, to lecture on the exhibit's opening day as chief customer."

The story continues that, "apart from its great intrinsic value, the Guelph Treasure fills a great gap in the history of art as shown in U.S. museums."

In Milliken's nearly 30 years as the museum's director, his eye for quality established one of the country's most impressive collections.

Until now, only visitors to Ohio could witness these artifacts. But an ongoing $258 million renovation serves as good fortune for Californians. "Medieval Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art," showing at the Getty Museum, presents more than 120 objects from a period spanning 1,300 years, including five pieces of the Guelph Treasure; many of the objects have not left Cleveland since being acquired.

These finely crafted gold objects, one more impressive than the next, serve as the centerpiece for an exhibition that dates back to the third century, around the time Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity.

Perhaps the most impressive item from the Guelph Treasure is a relic known as the "Arm Reliquary of the Apostles," dating to approximately 1190, when it was common to place a large, precious relic in a container shaped like a part of the body.

Conservators took an X-ray of the silver arm and found an arm bone, which is believed to have belonged to an unidentified saint.

The oldest object from the Guelph collection, dating to the late 700s, depicts the figure of Christ between the Greek letters alpha and omega, indicating the beginning and the end of life.

Presented for the most part in chronological format, the exhibition helps explain in what ways the Catholic Church and its followers used religious imagery, all the way up to the 16th century, when the practice was severely altered by the Reformation.

For example, the earliest works on display, "Jonah Marbles," a series of four statues depicting the biblical story of prophet Jonah being swallowed by a whale, combines the cultural traditions of ancient Rome with the burgeoning genre of religious art. The statues, which are in remarkably good condition, were commissioned by upper-class Christians living in the eastern Roman Empire.

A wealth of paintings and sculptures shown come from the later medieval period, the 14th to 16th centuries. One of the oldest selections from this period is "Virgin and Child with Saints" (before 1317), an altarpiece by Sienese artist Ugolino di Nerio. The work depicts the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ. Latin inscriptions identify the four saints depicted, including St. Francis and John the Baptist.

Each era's style and tone varies from the others, but the subject matter remains relatively stable. It's an impressive journey through centuries of fine art that captures significant chapters in Europe's rich history.

And it's a journey that would not be as accessible without the work of the "plump, polite little William M. Milliken" and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

— E-mail freelance columnist Jeff Favre at jjfavre@yahoo.com.