In a September 28, 2026 article, Cosmo Wenman says he began requesting the Rodin Museum’s 3D scans in 2017. The files document digitizations of public-domain sculptures by Auguste Rodin. After lawyer Alexis Fitzjean Ó Cobhthaigh filed a request, the Commission on Access to Administrative Documents, known as CADA, concluded that the scans were administrative documents and should be accessible. Wenman says the museum told the Ministry of Culture in 2019 that it intended to disregard that position, leading to litigation.

In 2019, Wenman, Communia, Wikimédia France, and La Quadrature du Net sued before the Administrative Tribunal of Paris. The museum disputed which works had been scanned and argued that its point-cloud files in open plaintext formats were difficult to use. It also cited counterfeiting and trade secrecy. Wenman says third-party visualizations and funding applications contradicted the museum’s account. In December 2023, the court classified scans in several formats as administrative documents and ordered the museum and ministry to provide them, awarding Wenman €1,500. The ruling also created an exception for point-cloud files. According to Wenman, neither institution appealed, but both ignored the order.

The Conseil d’État appeal focused on that point-cloud exception. Wenman submitted expert testimony and the Ministry of Culture’s own guidance on open point-cloud formats. At a hearing in early December 2025, the court’s rapporteure publique invoked René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images while questioning whether the files qualified as documents at all. The written ruling dated December 24, 2025 classified the scans as legal equivalents of physical reproductions held in the museum’s inalienable collection. It therefore found French freedom-of-information law inapplicable. The court dismissed the appeal and ordered Wenman to pay €3,000. Wenman says the case file exceeded 800 pages and argues that the decision leaves publicly funded digitization under institutional control.