From time immemorial, monarchs have used gold to symbolise their status and power, and artists to evoke the divine. This book explores the use of gold in art and the exploitation of its worth and rarity to promote messages of authority, immortality and wealth. Divinity looks at the importance of gold in devotional art; Power examines the role of gold in the imagery of power, and Art presents the precious, reflective and indestructible quality of gold, and ends the book with a selection of gold boxes, Faberge, jewellery, gold lacquer, the four thousand- year-old Rillaton gold cup and drawings in gold paint by Edward Burne-Jones.