PAIR 2 — HUMANITIES AND MUSEUM REPLICAS Passage A High-fidelity replicas can teach visitors about an artwork's shape and imagery, but museums should not present replicas as equivalent substitutes for originals. An original bears physical traces of its production and history: the artist's corrections, the material's aging, and even damage caused by earlier display practices. These features are not decorative accidents; they are evidence. Standing before the original also places a viewer in contact with the same object that moved through particular hands and institutions. Digital scans and facsimiles may widen access, especially when travel is impossible, yet their educational value depends on candid labeling and explanation of what has been lost. A museum that replaces difficult-to-display originals without acknowledging the difference risks turning historical objects into detachable images. Passage B Museums have often treated direct contact with an original as the highest form of access, but that standard can exclude most of the public. Fragile works remain in storage, distant collections are expensive to visit, and crowded galleries permit only brief viewing. Carefully documented replicas can reveal details through enlargement, lighting, and side-by-side comparison that the original display cannot provide. The relevant question is not whether a replica possesses the original's entire history; clearly it does not. The question is whether a particular learning goal requires that history. For studying composition, reconstructing a damaged site, or allowing tactile exploration, a replica may be the better instrument. Museums should identify replicas plainly while judging them by the knowledge they enable rather than by an automatic hierarchy of authenticity. QUESTION 7: The author of Passage A would most likely criticize Passage B for

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