Exporting references into boost::python

A newbie question regarding boost::python. I need to make a templatized function that returns a boost::python::object containing a reference to an object I already have. Basically: template<class T> object convertToPython (T &obj) { return object (obj) } All classes I pass through T are already wrapped (they are also not copy-constructible). I tried with the code found at python.orgs wiki: template<class T> T& identity(T& x) { return x; } template<class T> object get_object_reference (T& x) { object f = make_function (&identity<T>, return_value_policy