Reading Comprehension

PT14 · S3 · P3 · Q20 Stolen Art

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(The following passage was written in 1986.)

Topic

Proposed legislation regulating the recovery of stolen art and its potential problems.

Framework

Challenge Position

Main Point

The proposed bill to reduce uncertainty in art ownership actually creates unfair obstacles for rightful owners trying to reclaim stolen art, and the primary need is for laws that help legitimate owners recover their property rather than protect current holders. (The Most Valuable Sentence is the final sentence: )

P1: Overview of Proposed Legislation

A country is considering a bill to make art ownership less uncertain by requiring plaintiffs (those reclaiming art) to prove the current holder knew the art was stolen and by setting a national time limit for making such claims.

P2: Support for Legislation and Reasons Given

James D. Burke, a major museum director, supports the bill—especially the statute of limitations—because he fears that without it, endless lawsuits from other countries could threaten museums, especially if those countries enact broad cultural property laws.

P3: Author’s Critique—Challenges to Burke’s Concerns and the Bill’s Design

The author pushes back: so far, there haven’t been enough lawsuits to justify Burke’s worry, and instead the bill unfairly makes it really hard for rightful owners to recover stolen art. The “notice” requirement is too weak, the academic-check provision isn’t effective, the statute of limitations is too short, and expecting someone to prove a current owner knew an object was stolen is unrealistic.

20.

Which one of the following best exemplifies the sort of legislation considered necessary by the author of the passage?

  1. a law requiring museums to

    Too Weak

    This relates to publications, and we think the author would desire for art purchases to be more widely announced than just in these publications. But all this rule is saying is that museums submit a list of journals to different entities. That list wouldn't itself contain any information about purchased art. It would just list journals. You'd have to find an issue of one of these journals to read about any purchased art. Thus, it doesn't seem like sending out this list of journals to certain organizations would do anything to help legitimate owners of a stolen piece of art find / re-claim their missing art.

    8% picked this

  2. a law providing for the

    No Connection

    The author never expressed concern about where we keep allegedly stolen art during its period of legal limbo, so we can't match this up with something the author was worried about. This storage facility doesn't seem to do anything to help legitimate owners of a stolen piece of art find their missing art.

    4% picked this

  3. a law instituting a national

    Unrelated to Goal

    This law would benefit museums, when someone sues a museum to reclaim art they say belonged to them. We want a law that would benefit the person legitimately suing the museum, in order to reclaim stolen art that rightfully belongs to them.

    3% picked this

  4. a law declaring invalid all

    Unclear Impact Too Strong: all invalid

    Given that this would undo a lot of art sales, some of which presumably involved some stolen art, maybe it would help some legitimate owners of art find / re-claim their missing objects? But since it's museum-to-museum transactions, not museum-to-individual transactions, it seems unlikely to be undoing sales that are only one or two degrees removed from the original art theft. Also, this is just such an extreme idea for a law ... "100% of sales for the last 10 years are immediately considered invalid."

    2% picked this

  5. Correct

    a law requiring that a

    Why this is right

    This law would benefit a person who is the legitimate owner of a piece of stolen art, to find and reclaim that stolen art. One of the difficulties in reclaiming stolen art is that when someone buys your stolen art without knowing it was originally acquired by theft, all they have to do is "show the object to a scholar for verification that it is not stolen". But, the author complains, "It is a rare academic who is aware of any but the most publicized art thefts". So if a law forced there to be a central archive for all reported thefts of art, then it would be easier for the people involved in verifying purchases to check this central database to see if this art piece had ever been reported as stolen.

    Skill tested: Application · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    83% picked this

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