**Originally Listed At $300**

Pre-Columbian, North Coast Peru, Moche, ca. 100 to 700 CE. Three golden hemispheres comprised of 80% gold (equivalent to 18K+) - each one with a single perforation for suspension and/or attachment to embellish clothing, jewelry, or another form of visual culture. Any goldwork from the Moche is exceedingly rare, as their treasures were targeted by plunderers during Colonial times. See a discussion below regarding the scarcity of Moche goldworks as explained by Heidi King of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Size: larger hemispheres measure .75" in diameter (1.9 cm); total weight: 2 grams

Heidi King of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York states in "The Art of Precolumbian Gold": "The Mochica or Moche as they are also known, built their capital in the dry, coastal valley of Moche, where the main construction was the Huaca del Sol, the so-called Pyramid of the Sun, the largest adobe structure built in Pre-Columbian South America. The great pyramid, made of over 143 million adobe bricks, was clearly visible and easily accessible during Colonial times, and it received extraordinary attentions from early treasure hunters (Bray this volume). As a result of such attentions, little of the wealth in precious metals that the Moche peoples are believed to have possessed remains in its ancient form today. Those works that do remain are all the more important because of their rarity." (The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection" edited by Julie Jones. Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1985, p. 212)

Provenance: ex-private Grotte collection, Quincy, Illinois, USA

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#145012

Only very slight surface wear and indentations. Otherwise excellent.