Self-study
The Board of Trustees of the Federici Art Museum has decided to sell some works from its collection in order to raise the funds necessary to refurbish its galleries. ████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ █ ███████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the board’s decision to sell some works will not detract from the quality of the museum’s collection. Why not? Because the collection includes some unsuccessful early works of great artists, which the curator thinks should be sold. The curator thinks that those works are of low quality and don't improve the quality of the collection.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the curator is correct about the quality of the works and how they contribute to the museum’s overall quality. This means that the author is taking the curator as an authority on the issues, and adopting the curator's assumption that works of inferior quality can’t contribute to the overall quality of a museum.
9.
The conclusion drawn depends on █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
Art speculators are ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ █ ███████████ ██ ████
We have no idea if the opinions of art speculators reflect the true quality of an artwork, so this is irrelevant to the actual impact of the board’s decision on the quality of the collection.
b
All of the █████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████████
This is necessary because the curator’s opinion that some works are inferior only supports the conclusion if the board plans to sell the inferior works. If the board were planning to sell other works, the conclusion would be unsupported.
c
All of the █████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████
Whether or not the collection includes some works by Renoir and Cézanne that were purchased by other individuals has no impact on the argument.
d
Only an avid █████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █ ████ █████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ████ ███████
Who would pay what prices for which artworks is irrelevant. The argument is focused on the impact to the collection’s quality, not the strategic points of fundraising.
e
A great work ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████████████ ████████
It’s irrelevant whether or not any artwork will be appreciated. The argument is just concerned with the quality of the collection, not how people interact with it.