A miniature offering of gold leaf in the shape of a llama. The llama is the most emblematic domesticated animal of the Andes, along with the alpaca, and it is said that a llama was sacrificed to the sun god every day in Cuzco in Inca times. The exquisite beauty and exquisite simplicity of the few centimetres of laminated and folded gold leaf that make up this miniature offering should not make us forget, on the contrary, all the gold and silver plundered from Cuzco by the Spanish conquistadors after they kidnapped and killed Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Inca Empire, in 1533. Inca culture, 1450 to 1533 A.D., Peru Foil of an alloy of gold and silver with a small proportion of copper, fine ochre residue visible with a magnifying glass, very fine old patina H. 3 cm For the two finest examples of llama and silver leaf offerings, see figs. 61 and 62 p. 50 and 51 in: Sweat of The Sun and Tears of The Moon, Gold and Silver in Pre-Columbian Art, André Emmerich, Hacker Art Book, New York 1977, and also reproduced in color p. 55 fig.27 in: Rain of the Moon Silver in Ancient Peru, Ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2000 Provenance : Jean Roudillon Collection