Zhou Chunya, 58, with a turnover at public auctions of $75 million in 2012, topped for the first time the Hurun Art List 2013, which was released in Beijing on Wednesday.

Zhou is the youngest artist ever to top the list. The value of his work has more than doubled from last year when he ranked eighth. He has maintained a ranking in the Top 10 of each Art List since 2008, and has seen his sales at auctions increase dramatically over the last few years.

Meanwhile, Zeng Fangzhi, 49, was up from fourth into second place with $73 million in sales, and is the youngest artist in the Top 30 on the Art List. He has also remained in the Top 10 of the Art List since 2008 and has seen the value of his works increase by 96 percent in three years.

Fan Zeng, the 75-year-old Chinese ink painter and calligrapher — who topped the list last year — fell to third place this year with $69 million in sales at public auctions.

The total turnover of the top 100 living artists’ work was $1.2 billion, down 21 percent year-on-year.

The threshold for artists making the top 100 fell 11 percent from last year to $2.4 million this year. The average age of artists is 66, three years older than last year. There were 28 new artists added to the list this year.

"The Hurun Art List provides a starting point for Chinese would-be art collectors, who have been focused up to this point on earning money rather than spending it,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Shanghai-based Hurun Report.