At the end of the World War I, during the time when Antalya was under Italian military occupation, Italian archeologists started removing archeological treasures that had been found in the city center and surrounding the Italian Embassy, which they claimed to do in the name of civilization.
The museum at first operated in the Alâeddin Mosque in 1922, then in Yivli Minare Mosque beginning from 1937, and then moved to its present building in 1972.