The paper aims to sum up the most relevant publications on the art of metals from Bessarabia in the context of the evolution of artistic metal processing in Europe. The problem of metal art development has been reflected in scientific papers of different character. The multitude of topics allowed outlining the historiography on guilds and craft workshops, the activity of artists and the most representative works of goldsmiths and hardware artistic objects. It was found that at the current stage of research, despite the presence of a series of recent publications, the objects of precious and common metals from Bessarabia did not benefit from an interdisciplinary study that would give a comprehensive answer to the historical, artistic and technological investigation. We conclude that the issue of metal art evolution was addressed unequally in historiography. The diversity of publications focusing on different topics, which provided necessary documentary support, serves as proof