Unfortunately, Kythera does not have a museum that does justice to its history. The building that housed the Archaeological Museum was donated by the fraternity of Kythereans to the Greek government in 1975. The museum operated until 2006 when it was damaged by an earthquake and closed its doors to the public. The exhibition included grave steles, coins, vases as well as statues such as "Venus with Eros" and "The Lion of Kythera". Most of the items found during excavations carried out on the island can be found in the warehouses of the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus. The Greek government is unaware of the cultural wealth of Kythera – and of the rest of Greece for that matter – considering the limited funds devoted by the government. This has damaging consequences for both the cultural identity of the Greek people and local economies.
After many years of work in Kythera the Greek Department of Byzantine Antiquities exhibited a valuable collection of Byzantine and meta-Byzantine works of art in the small meta-Byzantine chapel of Analipsis in Kato Livadi. The Metropolitan Church of Kythera donated several of those pieces. There are also some Byzantine frescoes as well as icons and various church service items. Since the Byzantine legacy is much too large for this small museum most of the pieces are kept in the warehouses of the Metropolitan Church of Kythera.
