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.

答案精析：本题需要针对选项逐个定位到原文后选出答案。B项中的momentum出现在原文第二段首句，该句说到自2003年以来，世界艺术品市场已经有一段时间失去了增长势头。段末出现了other industries，最后一句在说艺术品市场产生的利益远远超出其规模，因为它汇集了巨大的财富、极度的自我、贪婪、激情和争议，而很少有其他行业能与之匹敌。这两句内容都没有对艺术品市场和其他行业的发展势头进行对比，B项属于曲解文意，故答案为B。

错项排除：第二段第二句说到，As its peak in 2007（2007年是艺术品市场的顶峰时期），随后说到，从那以后艺术品市场开始下滑。原文第三段用具体数字表明，截止到2008年，艺术品的销售额下降了近90%，所以A项“从2007年到2008年，当代艺术的销售额急剧下降”是正确的。第三段首句指出，在赫斯特作品拍卖会后的几周和几个月里，任何形式的消费都变得非常不合时宜。随后该段又对艺术品销售额的下滑进行了具体的数字解释，所以C项“艺术品市场在多个方面呈下跌趋势”是正确的。原文最后一句提到，但是那些不必出售作品的人都在等待，等待信心回归，D项是对这一句的同义替换，故D项正确。

长难句分析：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.

本句主干为But the market generates interest…，主谓宾结构。far beyond its size为后置定语，修饰interest。because引导原因状语从句，用于解释主句内容的原因。句末的in a way matched by few other industries为介词短语作方式状语，matched by few other industries为过去分词作后置定语修饰a way。

句意为：但艺术品市场产生的利益远远超出其规模，因为它汇集了巨大的财富、极度的自我、贪婪、激情和争议，而很少有其他行业能与之匹敌。