page_title: Rose Valland
section_title: Post World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Rose Valland / Post World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Commemorative tablet for Rose Valland on the wall of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris Français&#160;: Plaque commemorative de l'action de Rose Valland sur le mur de la Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume à Paris
context_page_description: Rose Antonia Maria Valland was a French art historian, member of the French Resistance, captain in the French military, and one of the most decorated women in French history. She secretly recorded details of the Nazi plundering of National French and private Jewish-owned art from France; and, working with the French Resistance, she saved thousands of works of art.
context_section_description: Following the liberation of Paris by the Allied Forces, Valland was initially arrested as a suspected Nazi collaborationist, because she had been employed at Jeu de Paume. She was soon released once her conduct had been vouched for.
  Trusting no one but Jaujard, she initially hesitated to share her records. After Jaujard had put her in touch with Captain James Rorimer of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program it took months of relationship building before she decided to turn over her most important records. The information Valland was able to supply led to the discovery of multiple repositories of looted art in Southern Germany, most prominently at Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps, where more than twenty thousand works of art and cultural objects were found. She oversaw the return of 1,400 crates of artwork from Neuschwanstein Castle direct to the Jeu de Paume. Valland's records would later assist in speeding up the return of looted artworks to their rightful owners.
  To assist in her efforts to locate stolen works of art and return them to France, Valland applied for and received a commission first as a lieutenant and then captain in the French First Army on 4 May 1945. She served in Germany for eight years, initially as a member of the "Commission for the Recovery of Works of Art" (Commission de Récupération Artistique) where she was the French government's liaison of the occupation zone in Germany.
  Displaying initiative, Valland approached German military staff (whose names she had recorded while at the Jeu de Paume) and was able to confirm the location of several additional, previously unknown repository sites. Valland was a witness at the Nuremberg trials in February 1946 where she confronted Hermann Goering about the artworks he had stolen. In 1946 Valland was put in charge of the Fine Arts activities for the French Oversight Board where she assisted in the recovery of numerous paintings, sculptures, precious coins, and tapestries belonging to France. In a 2013 report to the French Senate, it is estimated that due to the efforts of Valland, it had been possible for the Commission de Récupération Artistique and the Allies to locate approximately 60,000 works, with three-quarters of them returned to France before 1950.
  Upon her return to France in 1953, Valland was appointed a conservator of the French Musées Nationaux and in 1954 was named Chair of the "Commission for the Protection of Works of Art" (Chef du Service de protection des oeuvres d'art). In 1961, she wrote about her wartime experiences in a book published under the title, Le front de l'art (republished in 1997).
  Valland retired in 1968 but continued to work on restitution matters for the French archives. Her valor and dedication resulted in numerous awards from her own and other countries. From the French government Valland received the Légion d'honneur, was made a Commandeur of the Order of Arts and Letters and was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance. Following its creation in 1951, Valland received the  Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. The United States awarded Valland the Medal of Freedom in 1948.
  Valland died in 1980 and was buried in her hometown of Saint-Etienne-de-Saint-Geoirs. 
  In 2003, the central square in Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, was renamed Place Rose Valland. The Collège Rose Valland, located at 1 rue Pierre de Coubertin in her home town, is also named in her honor. 
  The Association de la Mémoire de Rose Valland, which was established to honor her memory, is based on Place Rose Valland in her hometown.
  On the initiative of the Association de la Mémoire de Rose Valland, a commemorative plaque honoring Valland was unveiled on 25 April 2005 on the façade of the Jeu de Paume.
  A stamp was released by the French postal service in her honor in 2018.
  The French Ministry of Culture and Communication (Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication) has a web portal, called Site Rose Valland Service des musées de France, which lists recovered artworks held in French national museums.
caption: Memorial plaque at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
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