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.
   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 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.
Which of the following statements is NOT true?

选项 A、Sales of contemporary art fell dramatically from 2007 to 2008.
B、The art market surpassed many other industries in momentum.
C、The art market generally went downward in various ways.
D、Some art dealers were awaiting better chances to come.

答案B

解析 细节题。本题要求考生根据文章段落细节信息进行总结概括,选出与文章内容不符的选 项。由于选项涉及的内容比较零散,需要考生注意并理解具体的信息。A项的意思是“在2007 年到2008年之间,当代艺术作品的交易量有巨大的下滑”。这一信息与第二段第二行和第三段 第三行的内容一致,因此可以排除掉。B项“艺术品市场在市场发展势头方面超过了其他行业” 的说法与第二段第一句话的意思相左。首先文章中指出至2003年艺术品市场莫名出现增长后 开始失去了发展动力,另外在第二段最后部分涉及艺术市场和其他行业的对比,但是并没有从 发展动力的角度论述,因此B项为正确答案。C项“艺术品市场从多个方面开始走下坡路”与第 三段内容相符。D项“一些艺术品商人正等待更好的机会”与文章的最后一句话内容相符。
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