Viktor Oskar Tilgner (25 October 1844 in Pressburg – 16 April 1896 in Vienna) was an Austrian sculptor and medailleur.^[1]

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He was the son of Captain Carl Tilgner. The family moved to Vienna when he was a child. His talent was recognized early by the sculptor Franz Schönthaler [de], who became his first teacher. Then, at the Academy of Fine Arts, he studied under Franz Bauer and Josef Gasser.^[1] Later, he was attracted to engraving and worked with the medailleur Joseph Daniel Böhm [de]. One of Tilgner's student's was German sculptor John Walz.^[2]

He belonged to the circle of artists around Count Karol Lanckoroński. During the World Exhibition of 1873, he met the French sculptor Gustave Deloye, who strongly influenced his work.^[3] The following year, he took a trip to Italy with Hans Makart, whose "realistic academicism" also influenced Tilgner's style. For the last twenty years of his life, he had a large studio in what was originally a greenhouse at the Palais Schwarzenberg^[4]

Despite a long-standing heart condition and recurring chest pain, he spent a strenuous day working on his Mozart monument, to get it ready on schedule.^[4] He died of a heart attack the next morning. Often considered to be his greatest work, the monument was unveiled a few days after his death. The bulk of his estate was bequeathed to his hometown and is now on display at the Bratislava City Gallery.

• Statue of Leopold V, Duke of Austria at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum
• Statue of Peter Paul Rubens at the Künstlerhaus
• Statue of Peter Paul Rubens at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia
• Statue of Raphael at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia
• Statues at the Kunsthistorisches Museum: Christian Daniel Rauch, Peter von Cornelius and Moritz von Schwind.
• Statues at the Naturhistorisches Museum: Alexander von Humboldt, Leopold von Buch, Isaac Newton and Carl Linnaeus.
• Statues at the Austrian Parliament building: Archimedes, Marcus Terentius Varro, Homer and Phidias.
• Statues at the Telfair Academy building: Phidias,^[5] Raphael^[6] and Rembrandt^[7]
• Figures at the Burgtheater: Don Juan, Phaidra, Falstaff, Hanswurst, William Shakespeare, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Molière, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Hebbel, Franz Grillparzer and Karl Felix Halm.
• Monument for Josef Werndl, Steyr
• Monument for Anton Bruckner in the Stadtpark. Due to vandalism, the female figure was removed and replaced with a simple pedestal.
• Monument for Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Bratislava
• Monument for Dr Johann Nepomuk Prix, Wiener Zentralfriedhof
• Monument for Franz Liszt, Ödenburg

• Peter Paul Rubens
• Hummel Monument
• Werndl Monument
• Bruckner Monument, original version
• Carl Linnaeus
• Dr Johann Nepomuk Prix Monument
• Phidias