The Minerva Giustiniani is first recorded in a set of engravings of the Giustiniani collection published in 1631. In 1805 it was bought by Lucien Bonaparte, who moved it to his collection at the recently acquired Palazzo Nunez. In 1817 it was sold by him to Pope Pius VII who had commissioned a new extension of the Vatican Museum, the Braccio Nuovo, where it remains today.