New French heritage enforcement ends Dutch-run WWI museum with 25,000 artifacts seized

A sweeping enforcement action under France’s heritage law has led to the seizure of 25,000 artifacts and will force the closure of Romagne 14-18, a major private World War I museum run by Dutch collector Jean-Paul de Vries in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, in northern France, NOS reported. The museum, which operated for 20 years and attracted tens of thousands of visitors, will shut down definitively after the summer following the crackdown, which began with a house search last summer and culminated in a large customs seizure in October.

The enforcement also involved what De Vries described as a large-scale operation that dismantled his museum. “With forty men strong, they dismantled the museum,” he told NOS. A customs officer told him, "You are simply unlucky that you have the largest and most beautiful collection of ground finds.”

The collection—built from battlefield remains of World War I within a five-kilometer radius of his home—includes weapon fragments, worn helmets, and pieces of trench wood. It had become a widely known private museum, visited by school groups, officials, and international tourists, and was featured by Lonely Planet as one of Europe’s best-kept secrets.

French authorities seized the collection under a stricter interpretation of the country’s heritage protection framework, the Code du Patrimoine, which dates back to the 19th century and has been strengthened over time. A key tightening in 2016 established that objects recovered from the ground with archaeological value belong to the state. Marie Cornu, a legal expert at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), said the law includes both buildings and movable objects.

“Then it was determined that everything that comes out of the ground belongs to the state when it has archaeological value. That applies to both buildings and individual objects. The idea is that the state is the natural owner,” Cornu said.

“My entire life I have always remained faithful to the principle that this collection had to come from within 5 kilometers of this house,” De Vries said during a tour of his converted barn. “In the beginning, it was purely a matter of logic, because your backpack was so heavy and so full after 2 kilometers that you had to go home. But eventually it became my trademark. That is how I show what a war does to a small village like Romagne.”

After the customs operation, volunteers used the remaining items to partially rebuild the museum space as a farewell. The site now contains taped-off areas with red-and-white cordons, stacks of cardboard boxes, and customs stickers still attached to objects. De Vries said, "We want to give it a dignified farewell. This is now part of our story.”

Authorities have also increased warnings near Verdun, where some of World War I’s deadliest battles took place. Posters there now read, “Let’s protect our heritage together,” warning that collecting or digging up wartime remains is treated as archaeological activity and is illegal without authorization.

Cornu said a central legal issue is defining when an object becomes archaeological. “How old does an object have to be for that to apply? Courts in cases involving World War I finds have ruled that archaeology is not only about ancient objects. Even recent finds can be considered archaeological heritage,” she told NOS.

She added that competing interests complicate enforcement. “In heritage law, there is always a difficult balance between the public interest and private and commercial interests,” Cornu said. “Those do not always align with the protection of heritage. That is why there is a system of permits.”

De Vries said he never formally declared his collection. “I have worked with customs and police officers. Everyone has been coming here for years. No one ever said anything. We don’t know the reason why I suddenly lost the entire collection.”