Konrad Johannes Oberhuber (March 31, 1935 – September 12, 2007) was a curator at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Oberhuber is known for being the individual who first raised suspicion about subsequently renowned art forger

Eric Hebborn Eric Hebborn (20 March 1934 – 11 January 1996) was an English painter, draughtsman, art forger, and later an author. Early life Eric Hebborn was born in South Kensington, London, in 1934. His mother was born in Brighton and his father in Oxfo ...

when he noticed distinct similarities in style and types of paper used for two works supposedly by two different artists. After alerting the

Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...

, further issues were noted in other works they had purchased from Hebborn.''CNN.com'
The prolific forger whose fake 'Old Masters' fooled the art world
October 24, 2019 Oberhuber was Curator of Drawings at

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

and Professor of Fine Arts at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

’s Department of History of Art and Architecture from 1975-1987.

Biography

Oberhuber was born in

Linz, Austria Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

and graduated from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. Originally a curator at the

Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

graphic arts museum in Vienna, he served as director from 1987 to 2000. Oberhuber died of brain cancer September 12, 2007, in San Diego.

References

American art curators National Gallery of Art Harvard University faculty 2007 deaths 1935 births Deaths from brain cancer in California People from Linz University of Vienna alumni Austrian emigrants to the United States {{academic-bio-stub