Ask what a replica is meant to show

A replica can explain one part of an object while leaving another part uncertain. Ask what the copy was made to show before judging how convincingly it resembles an original.

Read the display information for its materials, scale and purpose. A handling copy may prioritise durability. A reconstruction may explore a proposed form from incomplete evidence. A facsimile may reproduce a surface closely without reproducing the original material. These are different tasks.

Compare the right feature

If the purpose is to explain size, look at scale. If it demonstrates an assembly, examine how the parts relate. Avoid assuming that every colour, texture or missing detail is intended as a claim about the original. Where the display distinguishes evidence from reconstruction, preserve that distinction in your notes.

Check what you may touch or photograph. The fact that an object is a copy does not automatically make handling appropriate, nor does it remove the rights attached to its design or image.

Record the maker and date of the replica where available, alongside the identity of the object it represents. This gives the copy its own history. The useful question becomes what you learned through it and what still requires the original or further evidence, rather than whether the replica can be dismissed as merely inauthentic.