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There are bags depicted in an Assyrian wall carving found in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud in the ninth century, featuring a winged figure toting what looks like a purse.

So is what appears to be one of the collection’s great treasures: a magnificent 9th century BC Assyrian relief of a winged deity escorting King Ashurnasirpal II through his honored earthly passage.

On a recent morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Farley stood in the gallery of the Assyrian Court of Ashurnasirpal II and gestured at the reliefs taken from one of his palaces.

The last 3,000 or so years are covered in less depth, but significant works include a monumental relief of a genie, circa 883 to 859BC, from the palace of Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud – a site the Islamic State largely destroyed in 2015.

The governor’s palace at Tušhan, which sits on the eastern side of the high mound, was built under king Ashurnasirpal II, who boasted about its construction in an inscription found not far from the site.