It's not just the history. It's the same thing with any collectables - first edition books, baseball cards, Star Wars toys... Some person (or group of persons

It's not just the history. It's the same thing with any collectables - first edition books, baseball cards, Star Wars toys... Some person (or group of persons) crafted this thing. Some small subset of the original purchasers valued the thing enough to preserve it. In almost any situation, given freedom from financial constraints and all other factors being equal, anybody is going to choose the original thing over the reproduction.