In Glitter and Glory, the Rock of All Ages (Exhibit/NYC)

Gold,” a mostly riveting exhibition that opens today at the American Museum of Natural History, is the museum’s latest show-and-tell about a precious natural material. Its predecessors have been devoted to amber, diamonds and pearls. Taken together, these exhibitions form a genre at which the museum excels.

The formula, executed here by James D. Webster, overseeing curator of the exhibition and chairman of the museum’s division of earth and planetary sciences, and Charles S. Spencer, chairman of its division of anthropology, goes as follows:

Using art, artifacts, natural samples, wall texts and mural-size photographs, weave together narratives about the material’s formation, its effect on the course of history and its uses by artists and artisans. Lace with startling facts and fascinating vignettes (a link to Spanish sunken treasure, for example). Throw in a few comparative displays that verge on installation art. Lure visitors in one end and wait for them to emerge from the other with minds boggled and eyes dazzled. Greet them with a well-stocked museum shop.

But, really, nothing is as good as gold, and very little ranges so vigorously among function, symbol and frivolity.