Rose Valland The Art Front - Defence of French collections 1939-1945
NT106138
€ 22
Written in French
On 30 October 1940, Jacques Jaujard, director of the National Museums, ordered Rose Valland, who until then had been a volunteer agent, to remain at the Jeu de Paume Museum, where Reichleister Rosenberg's Einsatzstab, the main German department responsible for spoliations, had just set up shop.
She managed to do so until the Liberation, risking her life to carry out the surveillance she had been given.
Chased out of the museum several times following various accusations, threatened with deportation and execution a few weeks after the D-Day landings, she took all the risks, but always managed to return to her post to resume her clandestine activity.
Rose Valland tells the story of these dark years in Le Front de l'art, first published in 1961 and reissued in 1997.
This republication is a tribute to the work of this exceptional Resistance fighter. It is also a reminder of the struggle led by museums during the war for the protection of French artistic heritage, both public and private.
