The Dumbarton Oaks Museum is composed of four collections that testify to the passion of Robert Woods and Mildred Barnes Bliss for collecting extraordinary art. The Byzantine Collection comprises art made in the medieval eastern Mediterranean, along with comparative works from the ancient Greek and Roman, western European, and Islamic periods. Art in the Pre-Columbian Collection covers a vast geographic area that includes Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Central America and Colombia Regions of Latin America. The House Collection consists of European decorative arts and paintings, dating from the Renaissance through the modern eras, as well as a small collection of Asian art. The Coins and Seals Collection includes the most important collection of Byzantine lead seals in the world, numbering some 17,000 specimens and over 12,000 coins, one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the world.
Click any image below to begin browsing our collections. Each tab offers a selection of themes consisting of major highlights from our collection. We continue to add records to our online database. If you are trying to locate a specific object not currently available here, please contact museum@doaks.org. For Rights and Reproductions requests, please use the link in the footer.
