It was accidentally discovered by Italian astronomer Luigi Bedin, whose team was studying white dwarfs in NGC 6752 using the Hubble Space Telescope in September 2018; the discovery was announced in a paper published in January 2019.

[16] Bedin I is believed to have formed around 10–13 billion years ago with no star formation having occurred since then,[13][17][18] making it one of the oldest galaxies known.

[1] The galaxy is situated behind a group of unnamed foreground stars within the globular cluster NGC 6752.

[6][15][22] The galaxy partially appeared in the field of view during program GO-15096 of the Hubble Space Telescope, led by principal investigator Luigi R. Bedin, which occurred between 7 and 18 September 2018.

[26] The journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters published the team's three-part scientific paper on findings from the program on 31 January 2019, with the first part dedicated to the discovery of Bedin I.