Johann Heinrich Richartz

Johann Heinrich Richartz (15 May 1796 – 22 April 1861) was a German businessman and patron of the arts, best known as the main funder of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.

Johann Heinrich Richartz took over his father's business in the leather and wild hide trade after completing an apprenticeship in Mainz, Brussels, and Antwerp.

"[citation needed] The aim of the foundation was to include the art collection of the collector Ferdinand Franz Wallraf, which he had left to the city in 1824, in the completed municipal museum.

In recognition, Frederick William IV of Prussia made him a royal Kommerzienrat and a member of the Order of the Red Eagle 3rd class, and in June 1857 the Universal Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Industry awarded him a gold medal.

On 10 April 1900, a bronze statue of Richartz by Wilhelm Albermann was unveiled outside the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum's original site (now the Museum for Applied Arts).