It's publication day for Untapped New York Founder Michelle Young's new book, The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland! The book uncovers how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world's most treasured masterpieces. While centered in Paris during World War II, Valland's heroic actions reverberated throughout the global art world, with far-reaching impact on museums, galleries, and collectors right here in New York City.
Rose Valland
A veritable female Monuments Man, Valland has, until now, been written out of the annals, despite bearing witness to history’s largest art theft. Her beloved Jeu de Paume museum in Paris, where she had worked and ultimately spied, was the headquarters of the Nazi's art looting operation. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him. At every stage of World War II, Valland was front and center. She came face to face with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, passed crucial information to the Resistance network, put herself deliberately in harm’s way to protect the museum and her staff, and faced death during the last hours of Liberation Day. Discover where her story intersects with New York City art history!
The Lit Salon: The Art Spy
Wednesday, June 4th at 6:30pm ET: Celebrate the launch of The Art Spy inside the historic brownstone home of author Michelle Young during an evening of literary discussion, live music, and themed cocktails!
While chasing her dream of being a curator, Valland worked as an unpaid secretary—secrétaire bénévole—at the Jeu de Paume. That meant she needed to find other ways to support herself financially. She made ends meet by teaching art history, working for an art magazine, giving tours of other museums, moonlighting as a freelance art critic for French newspapers, and acting as an art broker. In 1938, she brokered the sale of L’homme dans la villeby Albert Gleizes. The colorful abstract painting completed in 1920 was inspired by the skyscrapers of New York City. Rose brokered the deal between a private collector and the Guggenheim Museum. The painting was sold again in 1975 and most recently in 2018.
The Museum of Modern Art
The Jeu de Paume stood out among other art institutions in Paris. Its walls were decorated with works from "foreign schools" of modern art by artists like Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, and Wassily Kandinsky, rather than Old Masters or French artists. Naturally, Valland had a working relationship New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), or more specifically with art historian Margaret Scolari Barr, the wife of and assistant to the museum's director, Alfred H. Barr Jr. Together, the women organized an extensive exhibition for the Jeu de Paume that featured American art spanning over three centuries.
When renowned Parisian art dealer Paul Rosenberg sought passage for his family to America, his own connection to Alfred H. Barr Jr. and MoMA played a crucial role. Rosenberg, who represented such artists as Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Fernand Léger, and Marie Laurencin, was a valuable asset to Barr. Barr's letter of recommendation helped Rosenberg and his relatives secure Visas that would allow them to seek refuge in America.
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, 1939 World's Fair
Photograph Courtesy of NYC Parks Archives
Valland worked hand in hand with Jeu de Paume's curator André Dezarrois to select and secure sculptures and other works of art for France's exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, which took place in Queens at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. While Dezarrois was on-site in New York, Valland remained in Paris. On his way to the fair aboard the SS Normandie, Dezarrois ran into Frida Kahlo. Dezarrois had just acquired Kahlo's self-portrait for the Jeu de Paume, at Valland's suggestion.
The Madison Hotel
In September 1940, Paul Rosenberg and his family escaped Europe by traveling aboard the SS Exeter from England to New York. In New York, the family settled on East Fifty-Eighth Street and Madison Avenue at a hotel known as the Madison. This residence hotel catered to wealthy families and boasted an entertainment venue for supper and dancing with live jazz performances. There was also an in-house French restaurant, Le Cordon Bleu, which would have provided a sliver of home for the Rosenbergs.
Rosenberg set up a new gallery in Manhattan, Paul Rosenberg & Co., at 16 East Fifty-Seventh Street. It was stocked with art from his London business. Though war times led to slow business, in 1942, he managed to host exhibitions on Picasso, Max Weber, Braque, Cézanne, and Van Gogh. He continued to supply pieces to the Museum of Modern Art, including Van Gogh’s Starry Night, which was fortuitously sent to London in 1938. Meanwhile, back in France, Rosenberg's Paris home and gallery at 21 rue la Boétie, as well as his hidden stashes of art across the French countryside, were being looted and sold by the Nazis.
City Hall & The Waldorf Astoria
France came to New York City when General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free France Forces, journeyed to America for a meeting with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The two figures met in D.C. before de Gaulle continued to New York. In New York, de Gaulle was greeted by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and a crowd of more than twenty thousand people at City Hall.
Paul Rosenberg had the opportunity to meet de Gaulle at a reception at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This was a special moment for Rosenberg, whose son Alexandre was fighting in de Gaulle's forces. “Tell Kiki (his nickname for Alexandre) that I have met his big boss,” Paul wrote to a friend.
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Learn more about the riveting intersecting tales of Rose Valland and Paul Roseneberg in The Art Spy, out now! Order a signed copy here.
Virtual Book Launch
Tuesday, May 27th at 6:00pm ET: Join author Michelle Young in conversation with Untapped New York's Chief Experience Officer Justin Rivers!
