I was recently listening to the Tarascan episode of the AskHistorians podcast (great job by the way everyone!) During the episode an incident was described wherein the conquistadors looted a bunch of religious idols and possessions from a religious shrine (as I best recall). I assume the idols and such were made of valuable materials, but what did they do with them? How did they translate that booty into wealth in Europe? Did they have them melted down and recast or sold? Did the government buy them? I suppose I'm just unclear how the variety of different possessions they stole had actual value to them.

Thanks!