Displayed there are representative examples of Armenian art objects, paintings, manuscripts and ancient coins. Prominent among these are religious objects such as gold and silver-encased relics, chalices, crosses, staffs, fans, reliquaries, communion pyxes, censers, processional banners, carpets, embroidered drapes and vestments. All these have esthetically significant designs and express specific features of Armenian national culture. Reliquaries are presented in the established classical forms. Equally delicate decorations are found on the chalices and the reliquaries which are sometimes studded with precious gems.
Gems add a unique richness to the art on crosses, manuscript covers and stafls.
Armenian goldsmiths were masters of the techiniques of engraving, shaping, meshing, threading and granulation. Belt buckles made at the same centers are predominantly in silver, sometimes gilded and adorned with pearls. Armenian, Greek, Roman, Parthian, Iranian, Byzantine, and other gold, silver and copper ancient coins, exhibited of the first floor of the museum, testify to the wide scope of international ties maintained by the Mother See throughout history. Among the most beautiful artifacts displayed are the embroideries. These consist basically of delicate and exquisite patterns, peculiar to the art of Armenian needlework.