Jennifer,
"Authentic" (from Greek "authentikos") means "conforming to reality; being
witness for something; genuine; not imitating". Thus an authentic object is
every museologist's dream because it is capable of proving ceertain facts
without any doubt. (Authenticity, of course, like "aura", is not something
which is automatically emitted, but it is our craft to accordingly convey it
to our visitors through interpretation). This, by the way, is the reason why
a museum object without proper documentation is actually worthless - it has
lost its voice.
"Original" (from Latin "origo"), on the other hand, is something initial,
that has been there from the beginning. Originality is tied to the object
itself and can therefore only vouch for its own background - whereas
authenticity is bound up with certain occurrences.
Thus, every authentic object is usually original, but not every original is
authentic. Certainly, one must always ask in which respect an object is
authentic. (This is the reason why collection data management is basically
different from and by far more complicated than library data management.
This, however, is another story...)
Jennifer, I appreciate your "just wondering" very much. In case you read
German, have a look at my "Handbuch der Allgemeinen Museologie" ("Manual of
General Museology"), Wien/Koeln/Weimar, 2nd ed. 1996: 170-171.
Best wishes,
Fritz
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