Romagne 14–18 museum to close after French customs seizure

20 May 2026

Vrienden+Romagne+14 18++SLIDE+28 — Image: Musée Romagne 14-18 website

The private First World War museum Romagne 14–18, at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon in the Meuse, will close after the summer following the seizure of 25,000 objects by French customs.

Run for 20 years by Dutch collector Jean-Paul de Vries, the museum displayed material recovered from the Meuse-Argonne battlefields, all gathered within 5 kilometres of De Vries’s home. It attracted tens of thousands of visitors a year, including school groups and international tourists, and was listed by Lonely Planet among Europe’s lesser-known museums.

133X0x3556x2667 1920X1440 — Image: Musée Romagne 14-18 website

A house search on 3 July 2025 was followed in October by a customs operation. De Vries told Dutch public broadcaster NOS that around 40 officers dismantled the museum and removed the collection. ‘You are simply unlucky that you have the largest and most beautiful collection of ground finds’, a customs officer told him.

The action was taken under France’s Code du Patrimoine. An amendment in 2016 established that objects with archaeological value recovered from the ground belong to the French state. Marie Cornu, research director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and a specialist in cultural heritage law, told NOS that French courts have ruled this applies to First World War finds as well as to older material.

De Vries said he had never formally declared the collection and that police and customs officers had visited the museum for years without raising concerns. An investigation into the seized objects is continuing and may result in a court case.