Richard Offner (June 30, 1889 – August 26, 1965) was an Austrian-American art historian dedicated to the study of Florentine paintings from the Renaissance.

He remained at NYU for the remainder of his career, serving as head of the fine arts department from 1930 to 1933, and as an emeritus from 1954 until his retirement in 1961.

[4] He was survived by his screenwriter brother Mortimer (who died the following month); his son Paul (a Wisconsin State Senator), and his daughter, Antonia.

[5][6] Offner published 12 volumes of his Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting through the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

It was donated to the Gallery by the Institute of Fine Arts, New York, along with other scholars' collections, including: Gertrude Coor, James Stubblebine, Rudolf Meyer Riefstahl, Martin Weinberger and Henry Russell Hitchcock.