Named a Best Book of 2025 by the New York Public Library, The Art Spy is a riveting and stylish saga set in Paris during World War II that uncovers how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world’s most treasured masterpieces.

Best-selling author Michelle Young’s narrative nonfiction book is based on troves of previously undiscovered documents about Rose Valland, a female Monuments Man who has mostly been written out of the annals despite bearing witness to history’s largest art theft. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him. In the spirit of Hidden Figures, with the sweeping narrative of The Rape of Europa and the depth of The Resistance Quartet, Michelle tells the extraordinary tale of Rose Valland, whose courage and tenacity in a time of violence and terror is an inspiration for us all.

Michelle Young is an award-winning author, journalist, photographer, and cellist. She is the founder of Untapped New York, an online magazine about New York City’s secrets and hidden places. She is also the author of Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York: An Unusual Guide, Secret New York: Hidden Bars and Restaurants, and Broadway.

Michelle is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture. She has also served as an instructor at CUNY’s Newmark School of Journalism. She lives with her family in the Berkshires.