Contemporary Chinese ink painter Cui Ruzhuo topped Hurun's annual Art List for the first time, with total sales of his works at public auction in 2014 reaching 466.43 million yuan (US$76.21 million).

Cui, who climbed up five spots on the list, is followed by last year's champion, Zeng Fanzhi, who had sales totaling 291.87 million yuan (US$47.69 million), and Fan Zeng with 267.52 million yuan (US$43.71 million).

Cui's turnover came from 66 works that went under the hammer in 2014. His most expensive work, "Landscape in Snow" (2006), was sold at auction for a record high of 145 million yuan (US$23.69 million) at Poly Auction Hong Kong in April 2014.

China, now the world's biggest art auction market, accounts for 37.2 percent of global art sales. The United States came in second with 32.1 percent, and the United Kingdom took third place with 18.9 percent.

The list, the eighth edition of its kind, ranks the top 100 living Chinese artists according to the total value of sales of their works at public auction over the past year.

The combined sales of all top 100 artists stood at 6.7 billion yuan (US$1.09 billion), down 7 percent compared to 2013.

Artists residing in Beijing dominated the list. A total of 42 are from Beijing, followed by Guangdong (9) and Jiangsu (9).

The ranking was established by Hurun Research Institute, a leading authority on wealth in China, and Arton, China's largest compiler of art statistics.

Following is Hurun's ranking of the top 10 best-selling living Chinese artists in 2014:

  Chen Peiqiu 陳佩秋

 

Sales:148.18 million yuan (US$24.21 million);Change year-on-year:24 percent

Rank change:Up four spots

Sex:Female

Born:1922

Art genres:Chinese ink painting