Rose Valland, who criticized the most famous paintings of the Second World War, how Rose Valland turned into a spy criticizing Hitler's paintings
Rose Valland, who saved the most famous paintings of the Second World War:
Rose Valland was an art historian who was asked to work as a spy for the Allies during World War II. I had access to art treasures that had been kept by the Nazis and smuggled out of Germany before being destroyed. As a young girl, she studied art history at the Sorbonne and became an expert in Renaissance painting and sculpture.
When World War II broke out in Europe, Valland fled with her family to England where she continued to write and lecture on art. In 1941 she joined the staff of the British Museum as Curator of Prints and Drawings. She married Charles Valland during this time, but soon after they divorced when he was sent to fight in North Africa.
There, Valland discovers that Adolf Hitler ordered all historical art to be destroyed or hidden from Germany's enemies. She begins smuggling them out of France to be kept in various secret locations across Europe, including castles owned by friends in Scotland and Switzerland. Valland's job was not only to save art, but also to preserve humanity itself by helping people survive in difficult circumstances.
In 1935, Jaujard authorized him to go to Germany for a research trip. There she met Adolf Hitler and saw with her own eyes what he planned to do with the art of his country. I wrote a report of what I had seen and sent it to Jaujard but that was not enough. The Nazis began seizing works of art deemed "degenerate" or "Aryan" (i.e. German) and using them as propaganda. Valland returned home and immediately began working with other intellectuals to find out how they could recover these works before they were destroyed. They formed an organization called the Association for the Protection of Art Treasures (APAT), which began working closely with officials from the Louvre and other museums across Europe to recover the works of stolen art before it can be sold or destroyed by
How Rose Walland turned into a spy criticizing Hitler's paintings:
Rose Valland is a French art historian who became a spy during the Nazi occupation of France. In 1940, she joined the resistance movement and helped smuggle works of art out of France to be kept in museums in London, New York and elsewhere. Her work was so successful that she received a medal from the French government for saving thousands of works from Nazi destruction. Valland died in 1979 at the age of 72 after falling down the stairs while cleaning her apartment in Paris.
In 1943, Valland was recruited by the French government to be a spy and infiltrate Nazi-controlled art galleries. She worked with other secret agents to save many masterpieces from destruction. As an art historian, Rose Valland has access to some of France's most valuable works of art. But she also had a secret: she was actually working with the French Resistance and was responsible for smuggling works of art out of France before they were destroyed or sold by Nazi officials.
She traveled to different cities and hid her in secret places in order to protect her from the Nazis. She smuggled the coins to Bordeaux, where they were hidden in a bank vault until after the war. She even managed to get a piece on a plane to New York so it could be safely shipped overseas, then did it again when she learned that Hitler had ordered the destruction of all works by Picasso.
During World War II, she worked for the French Resistance movement secretly sending reports of German troop movements to the Allies and reporting information on their activities in Paris. His work earned him seven medals as well as the commendation from President Charles de Gaulle himself; However, when these victories were made public, they were overshadowed by news of further deaths from Nazi bombing.
In 1943, Rose began spying again when her husband was arrested by the Gestapo. She left all of her possessions except for a photograph of herself which later became known as one of the most famous photographs taken during World War II and went into hiding with him until upon his release in 1944 after France fell under Nazi control.
Rose Valland:
Using her skills as an illustrator and her attention to detail, Rose led several successful missions to prevent artwork from being taken by the Nazis or sold by those trying to save themselves financially. For example, she hid the paintings under her skirts while dancing in the nightclubs where they were displayed. They were then painted over before Nazi soldiers could remove them during raids on the premises of these institutions (which often took place at night).
In 1942, she began working for the Abwehr (German military intelligence agency) as an agent codenamed "Renée". She traveled around Paris using fake identity papers and collecting information on enemy troop movements from refugees fleeing Belgium during World War II.
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