Rose Valland

What’s the story about ?

While the Reich was extending its shadow over an increasingly large part of Europe, Hitler ordered the systematic looting of works of art in Paris: confiscation of private collections, closing of art galleries, requisition of their works and “forced” sales… If some collectors who have sensed the danger have managed, in extremis, to put their treasures the majority of other families, mostly Jewish, were robbed of all their property before being deported. From the Louvre Museum, from which he managed to exfiltrate all the national treasures before the war, Jacques Jaujard, the director of the National Museums, is determined to save as many works of art from the greed of the occupier. To help him in this clandestine action, he missioned Rose Valland to infiltrate the Musée du Jeu de Paume, which had become the the hub of spoliated works of art on their way to Germany. When this young and modest steward turns into a spy in the midst of the Nazis, she is far from imagining that this fight, as discreet as it was essential, would be her life’s work that she will continue long after the Second World War.

3 reasons why you should adapt this book :

• A strong, modern and atypical female figure of history who is still unknown
• How art was at the heart of Hitler’s politics
• Set in the most beautiful museums of Paris and works of art

Producer: France Culture

Podcast

Contact: Zoé Gabillet