Treachery in the Rodin Museum 3D scan verdict
The author details a long-running legal battle against the Rodin Museum regarding public access to 3D scans of public domain sculptures. The case highlights the museum's resistance to freedom of information laws despite favorable legal opinions.
Why it matters
It raises significant questions about the accessibility of cultural heritage and the enforcement of transparency laws in public institutions.
[Note: I will be speaking at COMMUNIA Salon: The Rodin Case , on October 13, 2026]
The Treachery of Images, René Magritte, 1929 When France’s highest court for administrative justice hears your eight-year freedom of information case, and the court’s own legal analyst directly invokes surréalisme to argue that “sometimes a document is not a document,” you know you’re about to get wrecked.
In 2017 , I began writing to the Rodin Museum requesting that it identify and grant public access to 3D scans of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures, some of the most well-known and widely copied public domain cultural heritage works in the world. The museum’s administrators responded with a sustained campaign of lies, weaponized incompetence, and open lawlessness.
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