As a history buff and occasional amateur explorer of ruins in the U.S. I think that if a thing that has any value is left lying about humans will loot it. The majority of people don't care much about history at all in my experience. They have their own pressing daily concerns, and one person's sacred history is another's material resource. A fortification becomes a source of building stones, an old barn yields timbers for a new floor, and relics are a source of cash. In New Jersey there is a place where archaeologists uncovered a colonial-era iron furnace and then had to re-bury it to prevent people from carting it off piece by piece.

Given all this I suspect the French will now have no choice but to excavate and inter the remains in the Winterburg tunnel. It would certainly have been better if the location had remained undisclosed, but I think that is really too much to hope for.