Votive lamp

This silver piece was manufactured with metal extracted from Potosí, in what is today Bolivia. Potosí was the most important mining town in South America during the colonial period. The precious metal was exploited through a tribute system of Indigenous forced labor known as mit'a, producing fabulous wealth for the Spanish crown. Silver was discovered in Potosí in 1545 in the Cerro Rico (Sumaq Urqu in Quechua), and it came to be considered such a mythical land of riches for colonizers that valer un Potosí (“it’s worth a Potosí”), became a common expression to denote great value.