In 2017, Cosmo Wenman began requesting that the Rodin Museum in Paris release 3D scans of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures, works that are in the public domain. The museum responded with a series of false statements, deliberate delays and legal maneuvers, according to court filings.

Wenman was represented by civil‑rights lawyer Alexis Fitzjean Ó Cobhthaigh and supported by organizations including Communia, Wikimédia France and La Quadrature du Net. A formal request was sent to the museum, which then consulted the French government’s Commission on Access to Administrative Documents (CADA). The CADA concluded that the scans qualified as administrative documents and should be made public.

Despite this opinion, the museum’s director informed the Ministry of Culture that she intended to ignore the FOI ruling and force Wenman to sue. In 2019, Wenman filed a case in the Administrative Tribunal of Paris, where the museum continued to misrepresent the scope of its scans, claimed technological incompetence and alleged that the scans could be used for counterfeiting. The tribunal ultimately ruled that the scans were administrative documents and ordered the museum and the Ministry to provide them, along with a €1,500 compensation to Wenman.

The museum and the Ministry chose not to appeal the decision but also ignored the order. The case was then taken to the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court. There, the court introduced a new argument — that point‑cloud scan files are not administrative documents — without the museum having raised it. Expert testimony showing that similar point‑cloud data are routinely used and published by other cultural institutions was dismissed. The Conseil d’État ultimately ruled that the scans are part of the museum’s collection and therefore exempt from FOI law, overturning the earlier ruling. The court ordered Wenman to pay €3,000 in costs and did not provide written notice of the decision.

Wenman, an open‑access activist and CEO of Concept Realizations, LLC, said the outcome reflects a broader pattern in which cultural institutions claim secrecy and exclusivity despite public‑funded digitisation efforts. He noted that the case has highlighted the gap between France’s FOI framework on paper and its practical application when powerful administrators resist disclosure.

On 13 October 2026, from 14:00 to 15:00 CEST, the COMMUNIA Salon: The Rodin Case will explore the legal implications of the decision and discuss whether 3D scans of public‑domain works should be freely reusable, including for commercial purposes. The panel will feature Wenman, Fitzjean Ó Cobhthaigh, Benjamin Jean (INNO3) and Brigitte Vézina (Creative Commons), moderated by Camille Françoise.