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  3. The longest bull run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst, Beauti

The longest bull run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst, Beauti

admin2011-01-07  134
问题   The longest bull run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby’s in London on September 15th, 2008．All but two pieces sold, fetching more than ￡ 70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last victory. As the auctioneer called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brother, filed for bankruptcy.  
   The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising bewilderingly since 2003．At its peak in 2007 it was worth some $ 65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew, founder of art Economics, a research firm-double the figure five year earlier. Since then it may have come down to $ 50 billion. But the market generates interest far beyond its size because it brings together great wealth, enormous egos, greed, passion and controversy in a way matched by few other industries.  
   In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst’s sale, spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable. In the art world that meant collectors stayed away from galleries and salerooms. Sales of contemporary art fell by two-thirds, and in the most overheated sector, they were down by nearly 90% in the year to November 2008．Within weeks the world’s two biggest auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, had to pay out nearly $ 200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale with them.  
   The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionist at the end of 1989．This time experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average,  though some have been far more fluctuant.  But Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive, says: "I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom. "  
   What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is that there are still buyers in the market. Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of demand but a lack of good work to sell. The three Ds--death, debt and divorce-still deliver works of art to the market. But anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away, waiting for confidence to return.
The most appropriate title for this text could be______.
选项 A、Fluctuation of Art prices
B、Up-to-date Art Auctions
C、Art Market in Decline
D、Shifted Interest in Arts
答案C
解析 主旨题。最佳题目应能照应到文章大部分段落。概括本文离不开如下关键词：艺术品(works of art)、拍卖(sale，auction)、危机现状(current downturn)。四个选项中只有C项与以上关键词最接近。   
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