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See the stunning cover of this new nonfiction book about Rose Valland, a WWII Resistance operative!
We are excited to reveal the cover of our founder, Michelle Young's, new book The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland from HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins. The book chronicles the wartime life of Rose Valland, a WWII Resistance operative who helped take down Hermann Göring's art looting ring, as well as the plight of art gallery owner Paul Rosenberg and his family and their dangerous exodus from France to New York City, where Paul became one of the most influential dealers of modern art in America. The book will be released on May 13, 2025 and is available for pre-order. Untapped New York and Maison Brooklyn will also host a candlelight Lit Salon with Michelle on June 4, 2025.
On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her. The Jeu de Paume, co-opted by Nazi leadership, was now the Germans’ final line of defense. Would the museum curator be killed before she could tell the truth—a story that would mean nothing less than saving humanity’s cultural inheritance?
Based on troves of previously undiscovered documents, The Art Spy chronicles the brave actions of the key Resistance spy in the heart of the Nazi’s art looting headquarters in the French capital. A veritable female "Monuments Man," Valland has, until now, mostly been written out of the annals, despite bearing witness to history’s largest art theft. 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 dozens of times, 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. She also singlehandedly provided information to stop the last train of looted artworks—bearing paintings by Picasso, Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Braque, Degas, Modigliani, and Toulouse-Lautrec—from leaving France.
Vivid and atmospheric, The Art Spy moves from the glittering days of pre-War Paris, home to artistic geniuses of modern culture, including Pablo Picasso, Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, Le Corbusier, and Frida Kahlo, through the tension-riddled cities and resorts of Europe on the eve of war, to the harrowing years of the Nazi occupation of France when brave people such as Valland risked everything to fight monstrous evil.
Author and journalist Michelle Young spent four years researching The Art Spy , working closely with the association La Mémoire de Rose Valland in France and with the family of Rose Valland—both of which have formally stated their approval of the book. She was granted complete access to archival materials, and to the family and acquaintances of Rose Valland, who shared never-before-seen documents and previously undiscovered materials. The Art Spy also incorporates extensive research from archives throughout France, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom to tell Rose Valland’s exciting wartime story in a way that has never been recounted before.
In the spirit of Hidden Figures, with the sweeping narrative of The Rape of Europa and the depth of The Resistance Quartet, The Art Spy is an extraordinary tale of a female hero whose courage and tenacity in a time of violence and terror is an inspiration for us all.
Pre-order the book here:
Advance praise for THE ART SPY:
“In her masterful biography of one of the greatest unknown heroines of World War II, Michelle Young brings the French art historian Rose Valland to brilliant life and finally gives her the credit she is due. Risking her life daily during the war to document the Nazis’ looting of tens of thousands of French works of art, the quiet, unassuming Valland then helped locate and return the vast majority of those treasures after the conflict. A gripping account of Valland’s passionate one-woman fight to preserve France’s artistic heritage, The Art Spy is a must-read.” —Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of Madame Fourcade’ s Secret War
“Rose Valland might have remained a shadowy footnote in history in less skilled hands. But at the heart of Michelle Young’s thrilling debut—packed with the intrigue of a spy novel, the tension of a wartime thriller, and the vivid detail of great narrative history—is groundbreaking research that restores Valland in all her depth, revealing a figure as richly drawn as the masterpieces she fought to save. With The Art Spy, Young arrives as a major new voice in narrative nonfiction.” —Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Stowaway and The Aviator and the Showman
“Young’s work—uncovering the harrowing details of Valland’s life and her partner’s imprisonment as an enemy of the state—reminds us of how, when brutality emerges, everyone gets swept into it eventually. The Art Spy rescues an intrepid and resourceful heroine’s story from being lost to history and brings her vibrantly to life.” —Shelf Awareness
Pre-order the book here:
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