Library Journal Best Books of 2025 * New York Public Library Best Books of 2025 * Finalist, Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Biography * Hyperallergic Favorite Art Books of 2025 * Publishers Weekly Best Books of Summer 2025 * 2025 American Library in Paris Book Award Longlist * 2026 Mass Book Awards Nonfiction Longlist
A riveting and stylish saga set in Paris during World War II, The Art Spy uncovers how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world's most treasured masterpieces.
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 ultimately 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, been written out of the annals. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him. She came face to face with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, passed crucial information to the Resistance network, and faced death during the last hours of Liberation Day.
At the same time, a young Free French soldier, Alexandre Rosenberg , was fighting his way to Paris with the Allied forces battling to liberate France. Alexandre's father was the exclusive art dealer for Picasso, Matisse, George Braque, and Fernand Léger. The Nazis had taken everything from their family—their art collection, their nationality, their gallery, and their home in Paris.
Vivid and atmospheric, The Art Spy moves from the glittering days of pre-War Paris, home to geniuses of modern culture, including Picasso, Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, and Frida Kahlo, through the tension-riddled cities of Europe on the eve of war, to the harrowing years of the Nazi occupation of France when brave people such as Valland and Rosenberg risked everything to fight monstrous evil.
In the spirit of Hidden Figures, with the sweeping narrative of The Rape of Europa, The Art Spy is an inspiration for us all—an extraordinary tale of courage in a time of violence.
How did one woman stand against the Third Reich to save Europe's priceless art?
- A Daring Female Spy: The remarkable true story of Rose Valland—quiet by nature, fearless by choice—who spent years embedded at the center of the Nazi looting operation.
- The Nazi Art Conspiracy: Go inside the Jeu de Paume during the Occupation, where stolen masterpieces moved in and out under the noses of the Resistance.
- Nazi-Occupied Paris: Experience a city transformed by war—from its glittering pre-war art scene to the tense, dangerous years of occupation and eventual liberation.
- Meticulously Researched History: Drawing on troves of newly surfaced documents, this account restores a forgotten heroine to her rightful place in the historical record.
Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist and author. She is a professor of architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she received her master’s degree, and is a graduate of Harvard College in the history of art and architecture. Michelle’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Airmail, The Forward, and Town & Country. She is the founder of the publication Untapped New York. She lives in the Berkshires, Massachusetts.
