Historian (doctorate 2009 on wealth creation, Nazi loot and restitution). Since 2021 Senior Provenance Specialist at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 2008–20 provenance researcher on behalf of the Federal Chancellery at Leopold Museum Private Foundation, Vienna; since 2016 member of Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.; 2005–09 lecturer in Austrian history at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; 2006–08 lecturer for the Pädagogisches Institut des Bundes, Vienna; 1999–2008 researcher at Bruno Kreisky Archives Foundation, Vienna; numerous publications and research projects on National socialism, asset history, exile studies and art history, e. g. for the Historical Commission of the Republic of Austria, Post AG, Dorotheum, Department of Contemporary History at University of Vienna and Gustav Klimt Foundation | Vienna 1900.
Richard Lányi was born in Vienna as a Hungarian citizen on 9 December 1884. He originally had the surname Löwy. His parents Leopold Löwy and Johanna, née Spitzer, were from Pressburg, at the time administered by Hungary.