In the first paragraph, the author refers to a highly reputed critic's persistence in believing van Meegeren's forger...

Annie on December 21, 2019

Hi @rpark,

The question points out that the reference to the critic comes in the first paragraph. If you read through that paragraph you will find the reference at lines 14-16.

As answer choice (E) states the reference to the critic is made to demonstrate how difficult it can be to identify forgeries. It is a passing reference and does not tell us anything more than that some critics were very fooled by van Meergens forgery, which tells us that it’s hard to identify them.

Andrea on January 26, 2020

Hi @rpark,

Lines 14 through 16 (end of the first paragraph) talk about the critic being referenced. The purpose of the phrase: Astonishingly (note the tone of this word), there was at least one highly reputed critic (this critic is the one from the question) who persisted in believing it to be an original even after the confession.

This illustrates (by example) that well executed forgeries can pose difficulties (the fact that he continued to be stumped by it and believe it was real even after the confession is the difficulty they’re referring to, that he can’t tell the fake when he sees it) for even the most highly regarded of critics in an industry (that critic who was identified as being highly reputed).

Hope this helps make E clear for you!

Alexis on September 7 at 10:52PM

Why is it not D though? I did not pick up this reference still find trouble getting that its the right answer

Emil on September 8 at 03:31PM

D is wrong because the author isn't trying to show that forgery is internally incoherent. The author does explore then question as to whether forgery is inherently a lesser form of art than an original, but the author is never arguing that the category of forgery doesn't make sense as a category.