Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT14 S3 P3 Q20 Explanation

Stolen Art

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsApplicationLaw

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Passage

(The following passage was written

The legislature of a country recently considered a bill designed to reduce the uncertainty inherent in the ownership of art by specifying certain conditions that must be met before an allegedly stolen work of art can be reclaimed by a plaintiff. The bill places the burden of proof in reclamation litigation entirely bill creates a uniform national statute of limitations for reclamation of stolen cultural property.

Testifying in support of the bill, James D. Burke, a citizen of the country and one of its leading art museum directors, specifically praised the inclusion of a statute of limitations; otherwise, he said, other countries could seek to reclaim valuable art objects, no matter how long they have been held by expressed the fear that widespread reclamation litigation would lead to ruinous legal defense costs for museums.

However, because such reclamation suits have not yet been a problem, there is little basis for Burke’s concern. In fact, the proposed legislation would establish too many unjustifiable barriers to the location and recovery of stolen objects. The main barrier is that the bill considers the announcement of an art transaction in purchaser, perhaps the only one in the chain who knowingly acquired a stolen work of art.

Thus, the need for new legislation to protect holders of art is not obvious. Rather, what is necessary is legislation remedying the difficulties that legitimate owners of works of art, and countries from which in locating and reclaiming these stolen works.

What this question is testing

Application

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
20.

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

Answer choices

  1. Too Weak8% picked this

    a law requiring museums to notify foreign governments and cultural institutions of all the catalogs and scholarly

    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.

  2. No Connection4% picked this

    a law providing for the creation of a national warehouse for storage of works of art that are

    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.

  3. Unrelated to Goal3% picked this

    a law instituting a national fund for assisting museums to bear the expenses of defending

    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.

  4. Unclear Impact Too Strong: all invalid2% picked this

    a law declaring invalid all sales of cultural property during the last ten years by museums of one

    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."

  5. Correct83% picked this

    a law requiring that a central archive be established for collecting and distributing information concerning all reported

    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.

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