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  3. All art booms are different. The previous one ended in 1989, when Japanese buyers withdrew from the Impressionist market. Intere

All art booms are different. The previous one ended in 1989, when Japanese buyers withdrew from the Impressionist market. Intere

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问题     All art booms are different. The previous one ended in 1989, when Japanese buyers withdrew from the Impressionist market. Interest rates rose in the slump that followed; there were plenty of sellers but no buyers. Today the reverse is true. Buyers are looking to diversify into alternative assets. The only problem is the sellers. There is plenty of money, but little to buy.
    It should follow, then, that buyers will snap up anything. But that is not quite the case, as the Old Master sales at Christie’s in London on December 8th showed only too well. In the recent sales the best pieces sold brilliantly, and the rest hardly at all. The best included a rare Raphael drawing, and an elegant self-portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck. Many of the leading dealers were present, including Philip Mould, known as the BBC’s "art detective;" Alfred Bader, a rich American art-market broker; and the heirs to two important art-dealing businesses, William Noortman and Simon Green.
    Van Dyck’s oval shaped self-portrait, painted in 1640, the year before he died, had been in the same family for almost 300 years. Mr. Mould joined forces with Mr. Bader to try and win the painting. Young Mr. Noortman, the underbidder who was trying to buy the picture for stock, did not stand a chance. The winning bid was ￡ 7. 4m, nearly three times van Dyck’s previous auction record.
    The last lot in Christie’s sale was a black chalk drawing, less than a foot square, by Raphael, an early 16th-century Italian master. It is the study of a head for one of the Greek muses. Its beauty, rarity and the sense that the study may well have been used by the artist himself when working on a larger painting drew collectors from far and wide.
    Christie’s had estimated the study would fetch ￡ 12m-16m. Bidding opened at ￡ 8. 5m, with three buyers on the telephone. Jennifer Wright, Christie’s New York-based drawings specialist, made a final bid for the Raphael of ￡ 26m—a world record for a work on paper.
    After the sale, Christie’s international co-head, Richard Knight, was quick to point out that, at ￡ 68.4m, theirs had been the biggest Old Master sale ever. "This result shows what a very solid market this is," he said. But that took no account of the failures, which were considerable. 15 of the 43 lots in Christie’s auction failed to sell at all.
According to the passage, the ￡ 26m for the Raphael was most probably unexpected by______.
选项 A、Alfred Bader
B、Jennifer Wright
C、Richard Knight
D、Simon Green
答案C
解析 根据文中第五段的内容可知，佳士得估计，这幅作品的售价会在1 200万英镑至1 600万英镑之间。开始的标价为850万英镑，有三个电话买家。纽约佳士得的绘画专家珍妮弗·赖特最后以2 600万英镑竞得这幅拉斐尔的作品。再根据第六段的内容可知，在拍卖过后，佳士得国际联合主管理查德·奈特迅速指出，6 840万英镑是绘画大师作品的销售额中最高的。他还说，“这个结果表明，这是一个多么坚挺的市场。”据此可以推知，2 600万英镑的成交价最让理查德·奈特感到意外。C项正确。
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