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A source report by Cosmo Wenman says the Paris Administrative Tribunal ruled in December 2023 that some Rodin Museum 3D scans were administrative documents and ordered their release. Wenman says the museum and Ministry of Culture did not comply, and that an appeal challenged the court’s treatment of point-cloud files. The supplied report does not provide the Conseil d’État’s verdict, so the appeal’s outcome cannot be confirmed here.
Artist and claimant Cosmo Wenman says a December 2023 ruling by the Paris Administrative Tribunal ordered the Rodin Museum and France’s Ministry of Culture to provide him with certain 3D scans of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures. His account says the institutions did not comply and that an appeal was brought over the court’s treatment of point-cloud files. Although the report’s title refers to a verdict, the supplied source does not give the Conseil d’État’s decision, leaving the appeal’s outcome unconfirmed.
Wenman says he began requesting access to the museum’s scans in 2017. He and co-plaintiffs Communia, Wikimédia France and La Quadrature du Net filed a case at the Administrative Tribunal of Paris in 2019, represented by civil rights advocate Alexis Fitzjean Ó Cobhthaigh. According to Wenman, France’s Commission on Access to Administrative Documents had earlier advised that the scans qualified as administrative documents subject to public access.
In the account, the Paris tribunal ruled in December 2023 that 3D scans in various formats were administrative documents and ordered the museum and ministry to release the scans to Wenman. It also ordered €1,500 in compensation. Wenman says the court rejected the museum’s arguments concerning trade secrets, counterfeiting, revenue and intellectual property, but created an exception allowing certain point-cloud files to be withheld.
Wenman says the museum and ministry did not carry out the order and did not appeal it. He describes an appeal to the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court, challenging the point-cloud exception. These are claims in his report; the source material provided here contains no ruling or response from the museum, ministry or Conseil d’État confirming the current legal status.
Public Access to Museum Scan Files
The dispute concerns whether digital scans made or held by a public cultural institution can be obtained through freedom-of-information procedures. If the tribunal’s stated approach stands, it could affect how museums handle requests for digital records of works in their collections, including files that are not ordinary photographs or documents.
The case also tests the difference between a ruling on access in principle and practical access to the files themselves. Wenman’s account says the court ordered disclosure, but that the institutions did not provide the scans. Until compliance and the appeal outcome are independently established, the public-access impact remains unsettled.
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From 2017 Request to Appeal
Wenman’s report traces the dispute to his 2017 request for the Rodin Museum to identify and provide its 3D scans. He says the Commission on Access to Administrative Documents supported access, after which a lawsuit was filed in 2019 with three cultural and digital-rights groups as co-plaintiffs.
The Paris tribunal’s December 2023 judgment was a partial resolution, according to the report: it treated scans in various formats as administrative documents and ordered disclosure, while excluding point-cloud files under an exception Wenman says was not grounded in the law. He says the appeal of that exception went to the Conseil d’État in late 2023. The supplied material ends before it reports any decision by that court.
“The judges directly ordered the museum and the ministry to provide me with the scans and to pay me €1,500 in compensation for my trouble.”
— Cosmo Wenman, describing the December 2023 ruling
Appeal Outcome and Compliance
The central gap is the Conseil d’État’s verdict: despite the source title, the report material supplied here does not state what the court decided, when it ruled, or whether it addressed the point-cloud exception. It is also unclear whether the scans were later disclosed, whether the December 2023 order remains in force, or what legal steps followed the alleged non-compliance.
The account is written by a party to the case and makes serious allegations about the museum’s conduct and statements in court. The materials provided do not include the museum’s, ministry’s or court’s account, the full judgments, or independent confirmation of those allegations. The status and scope of any release order therefore cannot be fully assessed from this source alone.
The Missing Court Decision
The next key development to establish is the Conseil d’État’s decision and its effect on the tribunal’s order. A confirmed ruling would clarify whether point-cloud scans can be withheld and what the public authorities must disclose. The source material gives no expected date or timetable.
Readers would also need confirmation from the Rodin Museum or Ministry of Culture on whether they received or acted on the tribunal’s order, along with access to the decisions and any subsequent filings. Until those records or statements are available, the reported outcome should be treated as incomplete rather than a confirmed final verdict.
Key Questions
What did the Paris Administrative Tribunal decide?
According to Wenman, the court ruled in December 2023 that scans in various formats were administrative documents and ordered the Rodin Museum and Ministry of Culture to provide them to him. It also awarded €1,500 in compensation. The source provided does not include the full judgment.
Did the Conseil d’État issue a verdict?
The source material describes an appeal filed in late 2023 but does not report the Conseil d’État’s decision. The outcome cannot be confirmed from the information provided.
What are point-cloud files?
They are 3D scan files made up of many measured points that represent an object’s surface and shape. Wenman says the tribunal treated these files differently from other scan formats and allowed them to be withheld.
Has the museum released the scans?
Wenman says the museum and ministry did not comply with the December 2023 order. The supplied material does not independently confirm whether the scans were later released.
Source: hn
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