Heroes and heroines come in many forms. They risk their lives on the battlefield or by putting themselves in harm’s way for a greater cause. Here is the untold story of Rose Valland, an art historian and the curator of the Jeu de Paume museum in World War II Paris. She was the savior to thousands of art masterpieces looted by the Nazis.
When the Nazis seized the museum as their headquarters for stolen art, Valland was told to stay put. She watched the battle to liberate the city through the museum’s windows. She knew she was in a unique position to work her own espionage. Right under German eyes, she could save these works of art from ending up in Hitler’s planned museum or be destroyed. Paintings by the greatest artists in Western art could have been lost forever.
In “The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero, Rose Valland,” Michelle Young crafts an exciting description of Paris in August 1944, when cannons were fired and shells exploded just beyond the museum doors.
While the fighting raged on, German soldiers continued to seize artwork from across France to store at the Jeu de Paume museum, where the 45-year-old Valland had worked for more than a decade. She was ready to “sacrifice” her life to protect the museum’s own collection. Eventually, she would help recover thousands of stolen artworks as the war wore on. Paintings by Rembrandt, da Vinci, and thousands of other artworks were in her hands.
Considered meek and timid, Valland remained at the museum. For four years, she spied on Nazi activities with great risk to her life. She documented the art that came through museum doors and worked tirelessly post-WWII to ensure their recovery and return to their owners. Among the objects she is credited with locating include panels of Van Eyck’s “Ghent Altarpiece,” Vermeer’s “The Astronomer,” and Michelangelo’s sculpture of the Bruges Madonna.
Keeping Secrets
Valland was undoubtedly qualified for this role. For the past 10 years, she’d already perfected the art of secrecy of her relationship with a British woman.
That the woman was also British made her an instant enemy of the Germans, and both lives were at stake. With this background, she’d mastered the ability to remain covert, calm under pressure, and, when suspicion was cast upon her, could easily come up with a story that satisfied the Germans.
The suspense slowly builds as Young creates an intricate and vivid Parisian setting, weaving stories of the pre-War art world. She shows how the shifts of power affected the French people, with detailed accounts of both the Allies and Axis movements during WWII.
Readers learn of Valland’s youth and how she fared academically. Though highly qualified, this daughter of a blacksmith was only considered for clerical positions, sometimes unpaid. Yet, Young writes, “she successfully distinguished herself among not only men but also the intellectual elite of France.”
Archival Material
Those who relish stories of wartime heroics will be deeply satisfied with Young’s meticulous research and storytelling ability. The author reportedly took four years to gather archival material. Her acknowledgements include many who had intimate details or essential documents.
Among those mentioned include: the La Mémoire de Rose Valland, an association which promotes her work and the role she played in saving French art, and many French researchers, authors, historians, and documentary filmmakers. Young writes that a grandniece of Valland “welcomed me into her home and shared with me the memories and documents she had on Rose.”
While Valland is certainly the lead character, and her story the most compelling, the author shifts attention to parallel characters and their part which slows the pace. However, these stories need to be told, and they make the story so much richer.
Though Valland needed to rein in her emotions during that time, later, in her memoir, she conveyed her feelings at seeing the art return to France. “I won’t hesitate to say,” she wrote “that this was one of my greatest joys. To see all these paintings freed at last, found again by my country, a little like the soul of Paris that was defending itself.”
Young’s own story in discovering Valland and her WWII contributions is just as captivating. She already had a deep interest in WWII, brought on by her grandfather’s survival of the Hiroshima bombing.
Young felt an immediate kinship with the French heroine. She and Valland both studied art history, specifically, the fine arts tradition. Young had visited Austria and saw one of the locations where stolen art was stored. While living in Paris, Young was only a few minutes away from where Vallland had her apartment.
Inspiration for Hollywood
Readers will come to care and cheer for the heroine as they follow the years of spy work, covert operations, eavesdropping, and notetaking in this a multilayered story that resonates today.
It’s not simply a tale of protecting priceless art. It’s also about saving France’s culture and identify.
In making the story come alive, Young has included a variety of black-and-white photos of Valland. Alongside those are images of high-ranking German soldiers and Hitler himself reviewing looted paintings and of artwork being uncovered by the Allies.
It’s time well spent learning about this courageous woman, whose life inspired not one, but two Hollywood movies: “The Train” (1964) and the “The Monuments Men” (2014) with Cate Blanchette playing the heroine, although name Claire Simone. When speaking with a reporter about her work, Valland once commented, “Above all, don’t talk too much about me!”
The end of the Author’s Note presents what this project meant to Young. “It gave me hope that no matter what atrocities take place, there are always those who are willing to fight for what is right, no matter the cost.”
‘The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero, Rose Valland’
By Michelle Young
HarperOne: May 13, 2025
Hardcover, 400 pages
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