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.

Premise. The act is to sell some works to raise money for refurbishing.

Although this may seem like a drastic remedy, the curator had long maintained that among the paintings that the late Ms. Federici collected for the museum were several unsuccessful immature works by Renoir and Cezanne that should be sold because they are of inferior quality and so add nothing to the overall quality of the museum’s collection.

Premise. There are some paintings that can be eliminated because of their overall poor quality.

Hence, the board’s action will not detract from the museum’s collection.

Conclusion. If the paintings recommended by the curator are sold, then such an action would not detract from the museum's collection.

The conclusion drawn depends on which one of the following assumption?

(A) Art speculators are unable to distinguish an inferior painting by Renoir from a masterpiece by him. [This might seem like a useful assumption. However, speculators are certainly not the only potential buyers.]

(B) All of the paintings that the board of trustee sells will be among those that the curator recommends selling. [If the board sticks to the curator's plan, then they will not be detracting from the museum's collection. However, if they sell work that adds to the overall quality of the museum's collection, they WILL be doing so.]

(C) All of the paintings by Renoir and Cezanne that are owned by the Federici Art Museum were purchased by Ms. Federici herself. [Even if they were not purchased by Federici, it does not change the fact that there are some poor works, many of which can be sold.]

(D) Only an avid collector of paintings by Cezanne would be willing to pay a high price for early works by this artist. [If we assume that this is true, then success of the auction proposed by the curator might be minimized. Furthermore, the argument says nothing about how high or how low the price has to be.]

(E) A great work of art can be truly appreciated only if it is displayed in a carefully designed and well-maintained gallery. [This answer choice refers to the consequences of the action proposed rather than the action itself.]

Which one of the following, if true, most weaken the argument?

(A) The directors of an art museum can generally raise funds for refurbishing the building in which the museum’s collection is housed by means other than selling parts of its collection. [This answer choice tells us that there are other ways or getting the money needed for refurbishing. However, the fact that our curator has decided to get the money by selling some of the artwork does not weaken the argument.]

(B) The quality of an art collection is determined not just by the quality of its paintings, but by what development of the artistic talent and ideas of the artists represented. [This answer choice tells us that there is a secondary value to the work of artists. While quality of work is important, visitors also value the ability to see how a given artists work and talent have developed. If our curator sells some of the earlier works, then a comparison cannot be made to later work and the argument is weakened.]

(C) The immature woks by Renoir and Cezanne that were purchased by Ms. Federici were at that time thought by some critics to be unimportant juvenile works. [I am happy to know of this detail. Now, I will see what other useless piece of evidence I will be provided with.]

(D) Those people who speculate in art by purchasing artworks merely to sell them at much higher prices welcome inflation in the art market, but curators of art museum regret the inflation in the art market. [This is so outside the scope of the argument, I am not even going to address it.]

(E) The best work of a great artist demands much higher prices in the art market than the worst work of that same artist. [This merely tells us that work of lesser quality fetches a lesser offer, i.e., price. Again, nothing about the specificity of the price is stated in the argument.]

By the way I went to see Renoir at the Art Museum and thought it was fantastic. Furthermore, an exhibition of Cezanne's work is planned for 2009, and I cannot wait.

IMO B

IMO B

IMO 1)B 2) B

Im confused .. my pick is A, A .. Please post the OA

IMO 'B' and 'B'

If it is not clear from my analysis of the argument and answer choices, my actual answers are B to 1 and B to 2.

1. B

B is defender. It seals the assumption to other possibilities.

IMO 1. B 2. B

B seems to be the best choice here