NOMA’s book club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in the museum’s collection and exhibitions.

This month’s book club selection is The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, a riveting and stylish saga set in Paris during World War II which tells the story of how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world’s most treasured masterpieces.

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About NOMA’s Book Club

NOMA’s book club is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book to participate. In addition to monthly book discussions, the book club meets periodically for curatorial programs related to the book selections. 

Books are selected in advance and planned according to the museum’s exhibition schedule. Participants are expected to procure their own copy of the titles. Selections are also available at the NOMA Museum Shop, where museum members receive a 10% discount.

Meetings are held in person or via Zoom. All meetings begin at 12 pm. For more information or questions, please email programs@noma.org.

About the Book

The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland

New York Public Library Best Books of 2025 * Publishers Weekly Best Books of Summer 2025 * Bookbub Best Non-Fiction Release of the Season * MSNBC/Afar Magazine 10 Best Books for the Summer Traveler * Newsday’s Top Must-Read Book for Summer * Christian Science Monitor Best Book of May 2025 * Longlisted for the 2025 American Library in Paris Book Award

On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and ultimately spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her. The Jeu de Paume, co-opted by Nazi leadership, was now the Germans’ final line of defense. Would the museum curator be killed before she could tell the truth—a story that would mean nothing less than saving humanity’s cultural inheritance?

Based on troves of previously undiscovered documents, The Art Spy chronicles the brave actions of the key Resistance spy in the heart of the Nazi’s art looting headquarters in the French capital. A veritable female Monuments Man, Valland has, until now, been written out of the annals. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him. She came face to face with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, passed crucial information to the Resistance network, and faced death during the last hours of Liberation Day.

At the same time, a young Free French soldier, Alexandre Rosenberg , was fighting his way to Paris with the Allied forces battling to liberate France. Alexandre’s father was the exclusive art dealer for Picasso, Matisse, George Braque, and Fernand Léger. The Nazis had taken everything from their family—their art collection, their nationality, their gallery, and their home in Paris.

Vivid and atmospheric, The Art Spy moves from the glittering days of pre-War Paris, home to geniuses of modern culture, including Picasso, Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, and Frida Kahlo, through the tension-riddled cities of Europe on the eve of war, to the harrowing years of the Nazi occupation of France when brave people such as Valland and Rosenberg risked everything to fight monstrous evil.

In the spirit of Hidden Figures, with the sweeping narrative of The Rape of Europa, The Art Spy is an inspiration for us all—an extraordinary tale of courage in a time of violence.

-description from HarperCollins Publishers

About the Author

Michelle Young is an award-winning author and journalist. She is the author of the book The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland (HarperOne), which was named a Best Book of 2025 by the New York Public Library, Library Journal, and Hyperallergic. She is the founder of Untapped New York and the author of Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York, and Broadway.

Michelle is a professor of architecture at Columbia University GSAPP and an instructor at CUNY School of Journalism.