{"id":4064,"date":"2026-05-12T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=4064"},"modified":"2026-05-12T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:00:00","slug":"this-dutch-collector-turned-his-home-into-an-incredible-fossil-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=4064","title":{"rendered":"This Dutch Collector Turned His Home Into an Incredible Fossil Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the six years since he turned his childhood passion into an adult hobby, Ron Janssen has amassed a stunning collection of prehistoric remains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ron<\/div>\n

Ron Janssen can still recall the spot on the side of the Maas river where he found a few teeth in the mud as a child \u2014 now 62, he often returns there when the tide is low, hoping to find something more. Back then, he picked up the teeth, assuming they were from cows or horses in nearby fields. \u201cI later found out they went back 10,000 years \u2014 they were from boars and other animals that were alive then,\u201d he says. That find sparked a passion for fossils that the Dutch businessman now indulges with more splashy acquisitions, like his latest, a spectacular ichthyosaur or prehistoric dolphin. <\/p>\n

It was Janssen\u2019s grandfather who sparked a curiosity for curios, a man whose attic and barn were stuffed with unfamiliar, exotic-looking objects. So he started picking up whatever caught his eye during walks along his local river, stashing the shells, stones, and bones in ever greater numbers of shoe boxes. Soon, Janssen spotted some of those finds in vitrines when he visited museums with dinosaur collections. \u201cI picked up literally anything,\u201d he says, pausing, \u201cBut I had a good eye for things.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"a
Janssen’s white ammonite fossil \u00a9Glen Burrows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He only turned that childhood passion into an adult hobby five or six years ago. \u201cIt was a time to spoil myself,\u201d he says of finally indulging in a major investment \u2014 in this case, a very different tusk from those he\u2019d found in the mud. He spent five figures on a mammoth tooth with Dutch specialist dealer Roy Masin. It wasn\u2019t the story of the animal that transfixed him, but the object itself. \u201cI immediately fell in love with the shape, the texture, the patina of it. For me, it\u2019s as good as a painting.\u201d <\/p>\n

From there, he quickly became an avid, if picky, acquirer of such ancient treasures. Janssen doesn\u2019t rely on a certain period \u2014 Jurassic or similar \u2014 to steer his buying, but rather on gut and instinct. \u201cI don\u2019t need much, but I need good things,\u201d he says, noting that he first started casting around for an ichthyosaur after a visit to London\u2019s Natural History Museum, where a corridor of similar fossils left him dazzled. <\/p>\n

\"fossil
Janssen has been building his collection around 6 years ago \u00a9Glen Burrows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took him two or three years to find the right piece, and he considered where and how to install it at one of his two homes before resolving to buy it. Another proud part of his collection: a large, white ammonite \u2014 rare both in its color and size. \u201cTo be honest, my home is a museum. I live between my collections,\u201d he says, while promising that his partner doesn\u2019t object to such a designation. \u201cIt\u2019s a world she didn\u2019t know before, but it also interests her.\u201d <\/p>\n

Janssen\u2019s collecting urge isn\u2019t limited to fossils. He wants his homes to resemble a Renaissance-era wunderkammer<\/em> or \u2018cabinet of curiosities\u2019 showcasing the natural world \u2014 think taxidermy or Vienna Bronzes. He also never considers deacquisition, so the resale value of a piece rarely troubles him. \u201cIn my basement, I have quite a lot of boxes, and sometimes I open one again and I\u2019m in love with what I find when I haven\u2019t seen it for a year or two.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"roy
Janssen rarely collects for monetary value \u00a9Glen Burrows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The dinosaur collecting world is small, he notes, with barely a dozen core proponents in The Netherlands at most, but he loves meeting other enthusiasts. At one fair in Amsterdam, for example, he spent the day combing the aisles for potential purchases. He ended up seated next to a museum director at a fair dinner that night, and was delighted to discover a fellow dino-lover with his own private collection, whose taste mapped almost exactly onto Janssen\u2019s. \u201cWe compared the pictures we\u2019d taken at the fair, and they were the same,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

While he isn\u2019t eyeing a specific next acquisition among the prehistoric treasures on sale, it\u2019s always the same: he\u2019ll assume he\u2019s not in the market for anything new until that gut reaction strikes while he\u2019s strolling the aisles of a fair in Paris, London, or Amsterdam. \u201cIf I wake up the next day and it\u2019s still on my mind? When it\u2019s lingering, that\u2019s when it starts to get dangerous.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the six years since he turned his childhood passion into an adult hobby, Ron Janssen has amassed a stunning collection of prehistoric remains.\u00a0 Ron Janssen can still recall the spot on the side of the Maas river where he found a few teeth in the mud as a child \u2014 now 62, he often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}