請依下文回答第 46 題至第 50 題：Wherever you go in France, the country’s artistic heritage is very much in evidence. France does have her share of uglyurban sprawl and unlovely out-of-town hypermarkets, but these are eclipsed by her wealth of beautifully restored andmaintained historic buildings which, together with striking new architecture and works of art, are part of the fabric ofeveryday life.France has had an important role throughout the history of western art which began with the cave painters of theDordogne, long before their land became a nation. From the Renaissance onwards French kings invited the finestEuropean painters to decorate their palaces, and Paris became the center of nearly all important artistic developments,whether the artists concerned were French or not.It was only in the nineteenth century that French painters formed a distinctively French movement that was far moreinfluential than the Flemish, German and Italian schools of previous centuries. The impressionists and their successorsradically altered the direction of European art, attracting even more foreign artists to Paris.Since the seventeenth century, when the Academies of painting and sculpture, and architecture were founded,architecture and the visual arts have been a central concern of the French state. Today, the Ministry of Culture ishoused in the elegant seventeenth-century Palais-Royal, alongside two of the nation’s highest institutions, the ConseilConstitutionnel and the Conseil d’Etat, exemplifying the belief of Catherine Trautmann, the culture minister from 1997to 2000, that “culture is at the heart of our democratic system.” This sentiment echoes the aims of her predecessors whoinclude de Gaulle’s post-war minister Andre Malraux and Mitterrand’s innovative and daring minister, Jack Lang, bothof whom wanted to enrich the lives of ordinary citizens.
46 What is the passage mainly about?
(A) The origin of European art.
(B) The ancient buildings of Paris.
(C) The importance of art to the French.
(D) The development of architecture in France.