The efforts of professors of the University of Athens to establish a depository of educational collections at the Museum of Archaeology and the History of Art date from the beginning of the 20th century. The exhibits have been donated by public Museums, Ephorates of Antiquities and also by private collectors. The Museum, in its current form, has been operating at the building of the School of Philosophy since 1994. In 2004, an open-air Archaeological Park was inaugurated, including exhibits that came from the excavations of the 3rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, during the construction of the Athens Metropolitan Railroad.

The Museum of Archaeology and the History of Art currently houses 11 Educational Collections. They form part of the students’ education, serving the purpose of academic training through the close interaction of students with the exhibits. Archaeology students are given the opportunity to study systematically a great variety of objects that are central to the understanding and appreciation of the methods of archaeological excavation and discovery and the practices of ancient art and culture.