The rapid growth of art fairs is changing the way galleries operate. Before 1999 London had just one regular contemporary ar

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问题     The rapid growth of art fairs is changing the way galleries operate.
    Before 1999 London had just one regular contemporary art fair, remembers Will Ramsay, boss of the expanding Affordable Art Fair. This year around 20 will be held in Britain, mostly in the capital. Roughly 90 will take place worldwide. The success of larger events such as Frieze, which started in London, has stimulated the growth of smaller fairs specialising in craft work, ceramics and other things. Art 14, which started last year, specialises in less well-known international galleries, showing art from Sub-Saharan Africa, South Korea and Hong Kong.
    One explanation for the boom is the overall growth of the modern-art market. Four-fifths of all art sold at auction worldwide last year was from the 20th or 21st century, according to Artprice, a database. As older art becomes harder to buy—much of it is locked up in museums—demand for recent works is rising.
    London’s art market in particular has been boosted by an influx (流入) of rich immigrants from Russia, China and the Middle East. "When I started 23 years ago I had not a single non-Western foreign buyer," says Kenny Schachter, an art dealer. "It’s a different world now." And London’s new rich buy art differently. They often spend little time in the capital and do not know it well. Traipsing (游逛) around individual galleries is inconvenient. The mall-like set-up of a fair is much more suitable.
    Commercial galleries used to rely on regular visits from rich Britons seeking to furnish their stately (富丽堂皇的) homes. The new art buyers have no such loyalty. People now visit galleries mainly to go to events and to be seen, says Alan Cristea, a gallery owner on Cork Street in Mayfair.
    Some galleries are feeling squeezed. Bernard Jacobson runs a gallery opposite Mr. Cristea. The changing art market reminds him of when his father, a chemist, was eclipsed by Boots, a pharmaceutical chain, in the 1960s. Seven galleries in Cork Street relocated this month to make way for a redevelopment; five more may follow later this year.
    Yet the rise of the fairs means galleries no longer require prime real estate, thinks Sarah Monk of the London Art Fair. With an international clientele, many can work online or from home. Although some art fairs still require their exhibitors to have a gallery space, increasingly these are small places outside central London or beyond the city altogether. One gallery owner says few rich customers ever visit his shop in south London. He makes all his contacts at the booths he sets up at fairs, which might be twice the size of his store. "It’s a little like fishing," he explains. "You move to where the pike is."
Why the demand for recent art works is rising?

选项 A、The modern-art market is overall growing.
B、More and more modern art works were sold at auction.
C、The older art becomes more difficult to buy.
D、Most of the recent art works are locked up in museums.

答案C

解析 细节题。根据题干中的the demand for recent an定位到原文第二段。该段中提到,较古老的艺术品越来越难买到——它们大多成了博物馆藏品——所以人们对当代艺术品的需求正不断增长,故选C。
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