单选题 When an associate of the Mus6e d"Art Moderne Andr6-Malraux in Normandy flipped through the catalogue for the auction of impressionist art at Sotheby"s in New York on November 2nd, he made a startling discovery. On sale was "Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents", a painting by Edgar Degas, which had been stolen in 1973 from a museum where it had been on loan from the Louvre. After being alerted by the French authorities, Sotheby"s dropped the painting from the sale. Now an investigation is under way. The owner is likely to lose it without compensation when it is returned to France. Like most art collectors, the owner had no art-title insurance, which would have provided compensation for the painting"s value.
"Theft accounts for only a quarter of title disputes," says Judith Pearson, a co-founder of ARIS, a small insurance firm that has been selling title insurance since 2006 and which was taken over by Argo Group, a bigger insurer, earlier this month. Three-quarters of squabbles occur in cases of divorce or inheritance. A work of art may also carry liens after being used as a collateral for a loan. More rarely, two or more artists may collaborate but then disagree about who has authority to flog their co-production.
Does the risk of title disputes warrant the cost of title insurance? ARIS charges a one-off premium of between 1.75% and 6% of the art"s value. In return the company will cover the legal costs in case of a title dispute and compensate for the agreed value of the art if their client loses the ownership dispute. ARIS has so far written about 1,000 policies and has not yet had a claim.
An alternative to art-title insurance is for collectors to do due diligence about the provenance of a work of art themselves. Yet many do not have the time or the tools to carry out such research, which is a complex undertaking as there is no central register of art ownership. And even sophisticated collectors get it wrong, as the clients of Salander-O"Reilly, a New York art gallery, discovered. It collapsed spectacularly in 2007 after it emerged that it had dealt in stolen art and defrauded its clients in a Madoffian manner for years. Such cases are exceptional, but as the market booms and the value of art increases, more art lovers will look for additional assurances that their art is really theirs.
单选题 The collectors of" Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents" would lose their collections because______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题
[解析] 由题干可以知道该题定位于首段，由第一段一句最后一个分句可知，《牙痛的洗衣女工》是在一家博物馆从卢浮宫借出展览时被盗的，后面提到是法国当局出面追回，可见选项D是正确选项，而A、B、C均为利用原文中一些词汇设置干扰，曲解文意，其中B是强干扰项。
单选题 The example of the first paragraph means______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 判断推理题
[解析] 第一段讲述了《牙痛的洗衣女工》的收藏者将画拍卖，却因为收藏品是赃物而被法国追回。之后第二段通过。Judith Pearson的话说明了所有权争议时有发生，而三段和四段则提出了保证所有权的方法，可见第一段的事例和第二段都是为了论证保证所有权的必要性，故B正确。A项以偏概全，C项和D项主次不分，都未能体会第一段在整个文章的作用。
单选题 As for title disputes, we know that______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 事实判断题
[解析] 文中第四段一句，可以采用的一个替代艺术品产权保证险的方法是“to do due diligence about the prmrenance of a work of art themselves”，可见调查收藏品来源是可以避免争议的方法。选项B错误，是因为购买所有权保险只是在争议发生购买者失去所有权时有所补偿，并不能避免所有权争议。A选项曲解原文，第二段一句说盗贼导致的争议占1/4，第二段二句提到离婚和遗产继承导致的所有权争议占到了3/4，但离婚所导致的是否比盗贼多并无法确定。C项过度推断，第三段三句中捉到了“client loss”，不代表争议者常常上法庭。
单选题 Collectors have difficulties in investigating the source of arts because______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 事实判断题
[解析] 第四段二句，“Yet many do not have the time or the tools to carry out such research，．．．”说明是因为时间和渠道的原因，D正确。A选项答非所问，B选项以偏概全，即使没有所有权登记中心，也是可以进行调查，只是调查困难而已。C选项夸大其辞，第四段三句提到即使老练的收藏者也会看走眼，但不代表没有分辨能力。
单选题 From the passage we may know that
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题
[解析] 纵览全文，前两段讲述了所有权争议可能发生，第四段讲述收藏者对来源进行调查又比较困难，那么购买所有权保险就是值得的，B正确。A选项过度推断，第一段中事例提到苏富比拍卖的是印象派画家的作品，但不代表是专门从事这方面的拍卖。从第二段二句可以看出所有权保险是一次性付清的，故C错误。第四段三句提出老练的收藏家发现自己看走眼，D错误。