LSAT 102 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The Board of Trustees of the Federici Art Museum has decided to…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Selling the paintings won’t lower the quality of the museum’s collection.

REASONING: The museum has some inferior paintings by Renoir and Cezanne.

ANALYSIS: Don’t get distracted by the fact that the museum needs money. The conclusion is very specific: the paintings can be sold without lowering the quality of the collection.

The director is assuming the museum will sell only the inferior paintings.

___________

1. This argues against the director. There is another way to raise money. Though technically this doesn’t relate to the conclusion.
2. CORRECT. If the board chooses which paintings to sell, then it might sell some high quality masterpieces, despite the curators advice.
3. It doesn’t matter why the museum has certain paintings. We only care whether the overall quality of the collection will go down following the sale.
4. We’re talking about the quality of the museum’s collection, not art prices.
5. The curator proposes to sell inferior works of art, so this hardly seems relevant.

Recap: The question begins with “The Board of Trustees of the Federici Art Museum has decided to”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn how to master LSAT Necessary questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.