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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

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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 Brothers, filed for bankruptcy, triggering the most severe financial crisis since the 1920s.
    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 Arts Economics, a research firm — double the figure five years 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 Impressionists 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 volatile (动荡的). 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, whereas in the early 1990s, when interest rates were high, there was no demand even though many collectors wanted to sell. Christie’s revenues in the first half of 2009 were still higher than in the first half of 2006. 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.
What is mainly discussed in the passage?
选项 A、Art market in decline.
B、Up-to-date art auctions.
C、Fluctuation of art prices.
D、Shifted interest in arts.
答案A
解析 本文首段指出Damien Hirst的画作拍卖结束的同时经济危机揭开了序幕，接着第二段论述艺术市场已经有一段时间失去了它的发展势头，然后通过数据说明了当前艺术市场的低迷，最后指出本次低迷不同于上次。由此可见，全文都是围绕艺术市场的衰落展开的，文中多次出现的art market和losing momentum，current downturn，this slump等都很好地体现了本文的主题，故答案为[A]。文中之所以讲到拍卖是想通过这个现象反映出存在于艺术市场的问题，故排除[B]；文中第三、四段讲到艺术价格的波动，主要讲了艺术市场价值的下滑，由此来反映艺术市场的低迷，因此论述艺术价格的波动不是本文的主题，故排除；文中未讲到艺术兴趣的转变问题，故排除[D]。
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