The essay aims to retrace the events leading up to the organisation of the 1931 Athens Conference, the first international conference on the conservation and restoration of monuments. Organised in Paris by the Office International des Musées under the aegis of the Société des Nations, the initiative brought together over one hundred participants including archaeologists, architects, conservators and art historians to discuss heritage issues. The Conference emblematised a key moment between the two wars, bringing out new approaches and new problems within a discussion that had been going on for many decades, including through, and it is first in this sense too, a comparison between the legislations of different countries. The political and cultural climate linked to this initiative today represents a fundamental stage in understanding the birth of the international debate on heritage conservation issues.