Understanding the line between art and editorial cartoons

At the end of today's class in the Wellin Museum, Professor Serrano asked a question: "Should editorial cartoons be displayed in museums?" This question sparked the conversation regarding the value of editorial cartoons and how they should be viewed. I think the reason there is a discrepancy in the value put on editorial cartoons is due to how wide spread the work is published. Considering the work itself, an editorial cartoon is representative of the sociopolitical views of the time, which is one of the elements of art. The illustrations are delicately represented, and some even have colors incorporated in them, such as the European editorials we saw today. However, it is understandable some people might put less value on the works. When we consume the editorial cartoons from publications, mostly newspaper, they are not pieces that are rare. Rather, they are printed out along with millions of other exact same copies that are distributed to large areas. To make a comparison, a photograph of Mona Lisa that has 100,000 of copies will not be displayed in the museum, since it is not the original. If we were able to collect the original pieces of the editorial cartoons, meaning the actual illustrations with ink or carvings on wooden plates, people might consider them to be more important and put more value in them. It is understandable, however, that museums have versions of the editorial cartoons that are ripped from newspapers since it is hard to obtain the originals.