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Artist Cosmo Wenman’s account describes an ongoing French freedom-of-information dispute over 3D scans held by the Rodin Museum. A Paris administrative court ordered the museum and Culture Ministry to provide scans in December 2023, Wenman says, but they did not comply; the later appeal to the Conseil d’État is not resolved in the supplied material.
Artist and digital-culture advocate Cosmo Wenman says a French freedom-of-information case over 3D scans of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures remains unresolved after the museum and Culture Ministry did not comply with a December 2023 Paris court order to provide the files. Wenman’s account says the dispute was then appealed to the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court; the supplied report does not give a final ruling or the appeal’s current status.
Wenman says he began asking the Rodin Museum in 2017 to identify and provide public access to its 3D scans of sculptures by Rodin, whose works are in the public domain. After civil-rights advocate Alexis Fitzjean Ó Cobhthaigh took up the request, the Commission on Access to Administrative Documents (CADA) issued an opinion supporting access, according to Wenman. He says CADA considered the scans administrative documents subject to disclosure. The museum’s position and the commission’s full written opinion are not included in the supplied material.
In 2019, Wenman and advocacy organizations Communia, Wikimédia France and La Quadrature du Net filed suit in the Administrative Tribunal of Paris. According to Wenman, the museum argued that disclosure could raise concerns involving trade secrets, counterfeiting, its commercial interests and intellectual property, and questioned whether some scan files could be used or viewed. He disputes those arguments and says images of files obtained from third parties show scans of works including Le Penseur, La Porte de l’Enfer, Les Trois Ombres and Le Baiser.
Wenman reports that the Paris court ruled in December 2023 that scans in several formats were administrative documents and ordered the museum and ministry to provide them, along with €1,500 in compensation. He says neither institution appealed that decision, but both failed to carry it out. He also says the court created an exception allowing point-cloud files in open, plain-text formats to be withheld, a finding the plaintiffs challenged in an appeal filed later that year. The court documents and the institutions’ responses are not provided here, so these procedural details are attributed to Wenman’s account.
Access to Publicly Funded Scans
The dispute concerns whether digital records of well-known public-domain sculptures can be accessed under France’s freedom-of-information rules, and whether file format or technical complexity can limit that access. A ruling requiring disclosure could affect how museums handle digital scans created or held as part of their public work. It could also clarify the practical force of disclosure orders when a public institution does not comply.
For researchers, educators, artists and cultural-heritage groups, 3D files can support study and reuse in ways that photographs may not. But the legal and practical consequences depend on facts not established in the supplied account: the scope of the court’s order, the formats covered, any rights or security restrictions, and what the appeal court ultimately decides. Wenman’s description of the case is an interested party’s account, not an independent finding that the museum acted unlawfully or deliberately misled the courts.
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From Access Request to Appeal
The case began with Wenman’s requests to the Rodin Museum in 2017. He says CADA advised that the files qualified as administrative documents, after which the museum did not provide the requested scans. The lawsuit followed in 2019, with three open-culture and digital-rights organizations joining as co-plaintiffs. Wenman says the plaintiffs also obtained funding applications through a separate information request and submitted them in court; he argues they showed the museum had sought public funding for scan production.
The Paris tribunal issued its decision in December 2023. Wenman distinguishes the museum’s alleged non-compliance from an appeal: he says the institutions did not challenge the order but did not act on it. The plaintiffs then appealed the court’s treatment of point-cloud files to the Conseil d’État. The supplied report ends while describing that appeal and does not provide a decision, later court activity or a subsequent disclosure.
““undoubtedly administrative documents””
— Cosmo Wenman, describing CADA’s opinion
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Appeal Status and Scan Access
The supplied account does not state whether the Conseil d’État has ruled, whether the case remains active, or whether any of the scans have since been released. It also does not include the museum’s or Culture Ministry’s account of the dispute, the complete judgments, or the legal analyst’s full reasoning. Wenman makes serious allegations about the museum’s statements and conduct; those allegations cannot be independently assessed from this source alone.
The exact range of files covered by the 2023 order is also unclear here. The report refers to scans in multiple formats and a separate issue involving point-cloud files, but does not provide the operative order or explain whether all requested sculptures and file types were included. The legal treatment of the files and any grounds for withholding them remain matters for the court record and any eventual appeal decision.
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A Ruling Could Set the Terms
The next reported milestone is a decision or other update from the Conseil d’État on the appeal concerning point-cloud scans. The supplied material gives no timetable. A decision could clarify whether such files fall within the disclosure order and what limits, if any, apply to access. It is also unclear whether the plaintiffs have taken separate steps to enforce the Paris tribunal’s order.
Readers should look for the court’s written decision, any official response from the Rodin Museum or Culture Ministry, and confirmation of whether the files have been provided. Until those details are available, the case’s present status and the practical outcome for access to the scans remain unconfirmed.
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Key Questions
What is the Rodin Museum 3D scan case about?
Cosmo Wenman and three advocacy groups sought access under French freedom-of-information rules to 3D scans of Rodin sculptures held by the museum. The legal dispute includes whether the scans count as administrative documents and whether some point-cloud files may be withheld.
What did the Paris court decide?
Wenman reports that in December 2023 the Administrative Tribunal of Paris ordered the museum and Culture Ministry to provide scans in several formats and pay him €1,500. The supplied account also says the court treated point-cloud files differently; the full judgment is not provided here.
Have the scans been released?
The supplied report does not confirm that the scans have been provided. Wenman says the museum and ministry did not comply with the 2023 order, but the material gives no later update on access.
Has France’s Conseil d’État ruled on the appeal?
No ruling is reported in the supplied material. It says the plaintiffs appealed the point-cloud issue in late 2023, but does not state the appeal’s current status or provide a decision.
Source: hn
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