Less than two months after opening its $175 million Tang Wing for American Democracy, the New York Historical has replaced 17 objects in its inaugural exhibition with reproductions. Museum officials initially lowered blackout shades over the windows, which solved the conservation problem but created another one. Louise Mirrer, the museum’s director, felt the shades compromised architect Robert A.M. Stern’s vision for the space and ordered them raised again. “We had to find a means that could accommodate both the architecture and the exhibition narrative — which we did.” After the Times began asking questions about the reproductions, the museum decided to remove the photograph as well, saying it did not adequately represent Saar’s work.