Self-study
Principle: Even if an art auction house identifies the descriptions in its catalog as opinions, Support it is guilty of misrepresentation if such a description is a deliberate attempt to mislead bidders.
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Summary
Healy’s was guilty of misrepresentation because it gave an inaccurate description of a vase’s date, and if an art auction house like Healy’s gives a description that deliberately tries to mislead bidders, then it’s guilty of misrepresentation.
Find or Complete the Application
We need to complete the application. To reach the conclusion in the application, the author must assume that when Healy’s gave an inaccurate description of the vase’s date, it was a deliberate attempt to mislead bidders. A “deliberate attempt” would mean that Healy’s knew the vase was not from the mid-eighteenth century but wanted bidders to believe that it was.
18.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████
a
An authentic work ██ ███ ████ ███ ██████████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███ █████ ████ ████ █ ██████ ████████████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███████
This suggests why Healy’s might want to deliberately mislead bidders, but it doesn’t address whether Healy’s actions were, in fact, deliberate.
b
Although pottery that ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████████ █████████ ███████ █████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ███ █████████████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████
Irrelevant. This provides no information on Healy’s intentions when it described the vase inaccurately. The preferences and behavior of collectors don’t give us any insight into whether Healy’s actions were deliberately misleading.
c
The stated policy ██ ███████ ██ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████ █████ ████
This means Healy’s violated its own policy when it noted the vase’s age in its description, but violation of policy is irrelevant to the question of whether Healy’s is guilty of misrepresentation. (C) doesn’t address whether Healy’s attempted to mislead anyone.
d
Some Healy's staff ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███████████ ████████
Irrelevant. This provides no information on Healy’s intentions when it described the vase inaccurately. Also, we don’t know whether the vase’s description was certified by independent experts.
e
Without consulting anyone ████ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████
This is the only answer choice that gives insight into Healy’s intentions and does the most to suggest that Healy’s deliberately tried to mislead bidders when it described the vase inaccurately. Healy’s dated the vase purely to drive up the price bidders would pay, even though it had little reason to believe that date was correct.