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- Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:00 am
#75081
Complete Question Explanation
The question asks us to come up with an example of the sort of legislation considered necessary by the author. In the last paragraph of the passage, the author makes it clear that she does not consider the recent legislation necessary. Instead, she says, what is necessary is legislation removing the barriers that keep rightful owners of art from locating and reclaiming their works.
Well, exactly what kind of barriers is the author referring to? In the 3rd paragraph she explicitly goes into the sorts of barriers between rightful owners and locating/recovering their art that would have been created or exacerbated by the recent proposed legislation. She lists four of these barriers: too many museum publications to survey for art transactions, academics are unaware of all but the most publicized art thefts, the statute of limitations is too short, and that it is unrealistic a holder of stolen art would know he possessed stolen art.
The author wants to knock down these barriers rather than create or exacerbate them. Thus, we want to Pre-Phrase an answer that deals with some of these barriers. It's difficult to predict what the exact answer will be, but we can come up with a couple possible solid Pre-Phrases: "Legislation creating a uniform publication that regularly lists all recent art transactions", or "Legislation eliminating the statute of limitations for art recovery suits", or "Legislation creating a database of all known art thefts, that academics and art holders may access". Each of these address the specific barriers mentioned by the author. Keeping those in mind (as well as staying open to any other legislation that would help rightful owners to locate or reclaim their art) we come down to the answer choices.
Answer Choice (A): Out of scope; museum catalogs and scholarly journals do not address the barriers mentioned by the author. If this choice mentioned museum publications of recent art transactions it would be a more relevant answer, but it doesn't.
Answer Choice (B): If art is the subject of pending litigation, that means the plaintiff has already found it (as you mentioned). So this legislation wouldn't help any rightful owners locate the art. Does it help any rightful owners reclaim the art? Not really; nothing about this helps a plaintiff win his/her lawsuit. I'm not sure who this litigation would help - maybe it helps the courts in the name of judicial economy? But it doesn't do anything to help a rightful owner from locating the art in order to bring a suit, or a plaintiff from winning that suit.
Answer Choice (C): This legislation, like the recently proposed legislation discussed in the passage, would help defend against reclamation suits. The author is advocating for legislation that would help the plaintiffs. So (C) is the opposite of what we want.
Answer Choice (D): This legislation is extremely over the top, so it's hard to believe our author would believe it to be necessary. In addition, it does nothing to address the specific concerns/barriers that the author addresses in paragraph three of the passage.
Answer Choice (E): This is the correct answer. This proposed legislation is similar to our final Pre-Phrase. It addresses several of the specific barriers mentioned by the author in paragraph three - academics and art purchasers would now have a database to reference and see if the art in question had been stolen. As a result, it would almost certainly help rightful owners of art with locating their stolen works.
The question asks us to come up with an example of the sort of legislation considered necessary by the author. In the last paragraph of the passage, the author makes it clear that she does not consider the recent legislation necessary. Instead, she says, what is necessary is legislation removing the barriers that keep rightful owners of art from locating and reclaiming their works.
Well, exactly what kind of barriers is the author referring to? In the 3rd paragraph she explicitly goes into the sorts of barriers between rightful owners and locating/recovering their art that would have been created or exacerbated by the recent proposed legislation. She lists four of these barriers: too many museum publications to survey for art transactions, academics are unaware of all but the most publicized art thefts, the statute of limitations is too short, and that it is unrealistic a holder of stolen art would know he possessed stolen art.
The author wants to knock down these barriers rather than create or exacerbate them. Thus, we want to Pre-Phrase an answer that deals with some of these barriers. It's difficult to predict what the exact answer will be, but we can come up with a couple possible solid Pre-Phrases: "Legislation creating a uniform publication that regularly lists all recent art transactions", or "Legislation eliminating the statute of limitations for art recovery suits", or "Legislation creating a database of all known art thefts, that academics and art holders may access". Each of these address the specific barriers mentioned by the author. Keeping those in mind (as well as staying open to any other legislation that would help rightful owners to locate or reclaim their art) we come down to the answer choices.
Answer Choice (A): Out of scope; museum catalogs and scholarly journals do not address the barriers mentioned by the author. If this choice mentioned museum publications of recent art transactions it would be a more relevant answer, but it doesn't.
Answer Choice (B): If art is the subject of pending litigation, that means the plaintiff has already found it (as you mentioned). So this legislation wouldn't help any rightful owners locate the art. Does it help any rightful owners reclaim the art? Not really; nothing about this helps a plaintiff win his/her lawsuit. I'm not sure who this litigation would help - maybe it helps the courts in the name of judicial economy? But it doesn't do anything to help a rightful owner from locating the art in order to bring a suit, or a plaintiff from winning that suit.
Answer Choice (C): This legislation, like the recently proposed legislation discussed in the passage, would help defend against reclamation suits. The author is advocating for legislation that would help the plaintiffs. So (C) is the opposite of what we want.
Answer Choice (D): This legislation is extremely over the top, so it's hard to believe our author would believe it to be necessary. In addition, it does nothing to address the specific concerns/barriers that the author addresses in paragraph three of the passage.
Answer Choice (E): This is the correct answer. This proposed legislation is similar to our final Pre-Phrase. It addresses several of the specific barriers mentioned by the author in paragraph three - academics and art purchasers would now have a database to reference and see if the art in question had been stolen. As a result, it would almost certainly help rightful owners of art with locating their stolen works.