China Daily looks at what’s driving the Chinese art market where some see a serious bubble forming:

A survey on Chinese art market sentiment conducted by Artron.net, the country’s largest portal website for fine art, said some 69 percent of the respondents believed artwork prices would go up in 2010.

While people are increasingly concerned that severe inflation might develop after the country adopted a loose monetary policy last year in the fight against the financial crisis, the most wealthy are thinking about ways to maintain the value of their assets. Over the past few months, the price of risk-averse products including gold, jewelry, artwork and other luxury goods rose steadily.

Furthermore, analysts said that with hot money – betting on the appreciation of the yuan – continuing to flow in and finding channels for investment, the country’s art market is likely to embrace a thriving season this year.

“Wealthy Chinese are restructuring their investment portfolio this year. If there are refined and rare works in the market, a new round of record breaking auction prices is likely to emerge,” Zhang Shuo, a spokesman for Shanghai Contemporary Art Exhibition, wrote in an article.

Another noticeable phenomenon in the art investment market is the involvement of financial institutions. Financial services including artwork options, artwork mortgage loans and artwork entrusted investment were launched to accelerate the development of China’s art market.

Putting the Ink on a Deal Takes on a New Meaning (China Daily)