The antique sculptures, and certain works of particular civic and moral significance, such as the David and the Judith by Donatello were transferred to Palazzo della Signoria, which had become the headquarters of the Republic.
On 11 August 1495 much of the sequestrated property was sold at auction in Orsanmichele. At the same time, as a sort of damnatio memoriae, the Medici coats of arms affixed in public places around the city, and on the outside of the family residence itself, were destroyed.
The last feast to be held in Palazzo Medici during the fifteenth century, on the morrow of the expulsion of its owners from the city, was that to mark the triumphal entry of Charles VIII King of France open image in a new window on 17 November 1494; the king remained for several days in the new-born Florentine Republic, staying in the Via Larga palazzo.
In 1512 the Medici returned to Florence, and managed to reappropriate most of their property. They returned to live in the Via Larga palazzo, restored to the dignity of the residence of the ruling city family.