Rose Valland fascinated me from the first time I read The Monuments Men. This woman is truly one of the unsung heroes of the Monuments Men. I can’t wait to see how she is portrayed in the movie.

Rose Vallard was a woman ahead of her time. She received an art degree, but couldn’t find a paid position at a museum. Instead, she was a long time volunteer at the Jeu de Paume museum, next to the Louvre. When everyone was leaving as the Germans moved into Paris, she stayed behind, a mole of sorts in the museum. the Jeu de Paume became a clearinghouse for the art wealth of Paris and France. Most of the art removed from the area went through that museum. Each night she would go home and make her own list of what was there, where it was headed, and by which transportation.

She was a woman it was easy to forget, and that quality is why she was so successful. Still Second Lieutenant James Rorimer had to earn her trust before she released all that she knew to him.