| 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 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 being 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.
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