hard · Gre Verbal

A museum director defends acquiring a disputed antiquity, arguing that keeping it in a public collection serves scholarship better than returning it to a country that lacks conservation facilities. [[Granting that the object would indeed be less accessible to researchers if repatriated, this consideration cannot by itself settle the matter of rightful ownership.]] Accessibility bears on where an object is best housed, but ownership turns on how it was originally removed. [[Since the antiquity was demonstrably looted, the case for return does not depend on whether the museum can display it more conveniently.]] In the argument, the two boldface portions play which of the following roles?

1. The first is the director's own stated conclusion about the disputed antiquity; the second is a premise the director then relies upon to reach it.
2. The first concedes a point to the director while denying it is decisive; the second states the ground on which the argument's own position ultimately rests.
3. The first is the argument's central main conclusion about the rightful ownership of the object; the second is a serious objection to it that the argument simply leaves standing.
4. The first flatly rejects the director's accessibility premise as being outright false; the second then supplies supporting evidence meant to show this premise is false.
5. The first and the second boldface portions both work together in the same direction to support the museum director's recommendation to keep the disputed antiquity on display.

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