NEW YORK, NY.- Today, artnet News published part one of their definitive annual list of the top 200 art collectors worldwide. Part two of the list will be published tomorrow, April 30, 2015.

The list includes collectors who have been active within the past 12 months, specifically those who primarily purchase art for their own personal collections. Unlike other collector lists, this one is honed an d specific, concentrated on modern and contemporary art collectors.

The artnet News team has divided the list into two parts. Some collectors are profiled in depth, others are part of our "Collectors to Watch" sections, which includes the names of those who are, by design, operating more under the radar but actively collecting, emerging collectors, as well as those who have been somewhat quiet of late.

Organized alphabetically, the list is the culmination of a complex process that began by gathering names suggested by experts in the industry—from dealers to art advisers to museum directors to critics— and was then refined by our own research, as well as careful perusal of editorial articles, collecting databases, and comparable lists from previous years. The process took three months and the efforts of several staff and freelancers.

The list includes several surprises, among them, a growing contingent of younger Chinese collectors, such as Lin Han, Adrian Cheng, David Chau and Kelly Ying, and Richard Chang. More than two dozen of the collectors profiled here have their own private museums, reflecting an increasing trend in the international collecting community.

Click here to discover who made this year's list.