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How can reading Genette’s L’Œuvre de l’art help us to understand the status of the heritage object? This article reflects on the utility of deploying Genette’s opposition between autography and allography to define heritage. The similar characteristics of the allographic works and of intangible cultural heritage raise three questions. First, I consider the legitimacy of transferring the Genettian approach onto the heritage object; next, I look at the relevance of borrowing the ontological distinction between autography and allography; and last, I analyze the contribution of Genette’s ontological approach to the study of heritage objects. The paper reveals similarities and differences, especially between the artistic function and heritage status. Genette’s approach helps to reveal the specificity of the two types of heritage and the role of the institution in defining the heritage object.