With Atahualpa captive, the Empire was paralyzed. Atahualpa had excellent generals, but none dared try and free him. Atahualpa was very intelligent and soon learned of the Spanish love for gold and silver. He offered to fill a large room half full with gold and full twice over with silver for his release. The Spanish quickly agreed and the gold began flowing in from all corners of the Andes. Most of it was in the form of priceless art and it was all melted down, resulting in an incalculable cultural loss. Some of the greedy conquistadors took to breaking up golden items so that the room would take longer to fill.