While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his planned Führermuseum, undercover adversary Rose Valland secretly worked to stop him. Valland (1898–1980) was a curator at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris when the Nazis invaded France, occupied the museum, and began using it as a sorting center for thousands of pieces of stolen art from across Europe. Miraculously, the wily Valland managed to retain her position in the museum while keeping meticulous secret records of the provenance and destination of the artwork. Her notes made possible the recovery of many stolen artworks (by Valland herself in many cases) after the war.
Michelle Young, a journalist and adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia University, shares the daring exploits of war hero Vallard, revealing how she came face-to-face with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, passed crucial information to the Resistance network, put herself in harm’s way to protect the museum and her staff, and faced death during the last hours of the day Paris was liberated from the Nazis.
Young’s new book, The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, is available for purchase.
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