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Abstract: THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND THE FINE ARTS (1798-1799) LOSS AND CONSERVATION OF THE ARTISTIC HERITAGE During the course of the Roman Republic’s two-year period, dating from 1798 to 1799, republican politicians and the intellectuals, alike, focused a great portion of their attention towards the administration of the historical-artistic heritage inherited from the papacy’s <<ancièn regime>>. In addition to issuing decrees and promoting legislation for the conservation of works of art belonging to suppressed churches and convents, the revolutionary events at the time brought about a whole series of considerations and debates regarding what new role and function works of art would have in the wake of the homeland’s newly found republican freedom. This essay carefully examines three particularly emblematic events: the requisition of various artistic objects at the hand of the French and the consequent reawakening of a general awareness in regards to Rome’s historical-artistic heritage belonging to the public; the conflict between public and private interests concerning the transfer and the export abroad of privately-owned works of art; the nationalization of the ecclesiastical patrimony as well as the relative measures taken for its conservation, amongst which are the institution of the first artistic heritage general catalogue recorded in the history of the legislation concerning art in pre-unitary Italian states.