This is an interesting tale. A Fokker D.VII fighter aircraft is being returned to the Netherlands where it will go on display at the National Military Museum, Soesterberg.

the Monuments Men, found the Fokker D.VII in a farm barn

The biplane was designed during the First World War, and went into service with the Dutch Fleet Air Arm in the inter-war years. However it seems that during the German occupation in the Second World War, it was removed from the Netherlands to become part of a Nazi-Luftwaffe museum planned by Hermann Göring.

In 1945, American MFAA (Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives) servicemen, better known as the Monuments Men, found the Fokker D.VII in a farm barn in Vilsbiburgin, Bavaria while searching for stolen artworks. They handed the aircraft into the custody of the Deutsches Museum based in Munich.

At that time, little was known about the aircraft’s provenance and true identity. However in 1980, restoration work on the plane revealed the its Dutch nationality markings (including its roundels) and a registration number.

Extensive German research has showed beyond doubt that the aircraft is Dutch, although its precise identity and history cannot be ascertained with certainty, which is why the German museum staff have enlisted the help of their colleagues in the Netherlands to try and find out what happened to this particular machine between May 1940 and December 1945 when it turned up in a barn in Bavaria.

Meanwhile, as the investigation continues, the Deutsches Museum has generously announced its intention to loan the Fokker D.VII to the Netherlands. Since there are still unanswered questions, there is no legal basis for restitution at the present time. This is why the plane is provisionally going on display at the National Military Museum for the next five years, starting in September 2025.