“If a dealer tells you that some recent sovereign is extremely rare, that it has been graded, has a certificate and carries a premium, they are trying to pull a sly one” The gold at the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia, is one of the most stunning collections you will ever see – diadems, helmets and crowns, rings, necklaces and bracelets, beads and breastplates, even fishhooks and penis covers. The smiths of ancient South and Central America were quite brilliant artisans. The Spaniards who saw their work said Aztec goldsmiths were more skilled than their European counterparts.
In Mexico, the conquistadors found life-size figures of men and women, great jars and pitchers, half pottery-half gold vases sculpted in relief with birds, animals and insects, and more. In Peru and…