The National Archaeological Museum of Venice is a state museum exhibiting sculptures of classical Greek and Roman art, bronzes, ceramics, gems and coins, and a small collection of Egyptian and Assyro-Babylonian antiquities.

The National Archaeological Museum , with a marked collecting character, is mainly made up of materials from the private collections of illustrious Venetian families , donated to the city starting from the 16th century.

The origins of the museum, in fact, date back to the testamentary legacy of Domenico Grimani and to the donation of his nephew Giovanni, respectively of 1523 and 1587, by virtue of which most of their ancient sculptures (over two hundred) reached the Venetian state, which went to set up the public statuary .

Typical expression of Renaissance taste, the Statuary was set up in 1596 in the Antisala of the San Marco Library; further donations enriched it during the 17th and 18th centuries, until, in 1812, by edict of Eugene de Beauharnais, all the marbles were transferred to Palazzo Ducale.