There is nothing else like it. Nothing else in human history can occupy the space held by gold as the symbol of wealth, beauty and power. The rise of civilized human history and its collective drive to build great empires, and their storied collapses, are intrinsically tied to element 79 on the periodic table.

On loan from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, “Gold” is on display at the Field Museum through March 6, 2011.

The New York show gives heavy emphasis to gold as a cultural icon. African sandals, Inca figures, rare doubloons, a Cartier necklace and Harrison Ford’s Golden Globe award connect the enduring element with success on six of seven continents.

Three hundred square feet of 23-karat gold-covered walls in the exhibit’s gold room goes a long way to illustrate the malleability of the metal once you learn the piece was pressed from three ounces of gold.

Added for the Chicago showing are Chicago speed skater Shani Davis’ 2006 and 2010 Olympic gold medals, a Chicago Symphony Orchestra Grammy and the Chicago White Sox 2005 World Series Championship trophy.

Davis’ 2010 medal is actually silver, covered with 6 grams of gold recovered from used electronics. The Wall Street Journal pegged its straight gold value at $500 when gold was $1,100 an ounce.

In all, 560 pieces in 7,500 square feet of exhibit space tell the tale of gold and its constant hold over humanity.

With gold bouncing around the $1,300-per-ounce mark, museumgoers will be surprised to see gold more valuable than gold itself. Crystallized gold is so rare that it’s worth more in its natural form, said Hilary Sanders, Field Museum senior project manager. According the American Museum of Natural History, the examples in the show are worth seven times more than gold by weight, or $9,100 an ounce if compared to a basic gold bar.

With brief explanations of how gold is formed, mined and processed, a U.S. history lesson is folded into the show, touching on gold deposits from Seward’s folly (Alaska), the last known bar of gold from the 1849 California gold rush and recovered gold coins and bars from the SS Central America’s 15-ton cargo lost to a hurricane off the Carolina coast in 1857. Its loss contributed to the Panic of 1857, which saw 5,000 business fail and the stock market drop by 66 percent.

Numismatists will find 329 minted pieces on display, a mix of ancient Greek, Roman and Chinese coinage. Two gold coins date to 7th century B.C. Turkey and are among the earliest known coins minted.

Contact: gskinner@chicagojournal.com