The first national archaeological museum in a Greece was opened by prime minister of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. Since the then the archaeological collection has been moved to various exhibition places until 1858, when an international architectural competition was announced for the location and the architectural design of the new museum.The current location was proposed and the construction of the museum building began in 1866 and was finished in 1889 using funds from the Greek Government, the Greek Archaeological Society and the society of the Mycenae. Major benefactors were Eleni Tositsa who donated the land for the building of the museum, Demetrios and Nikolaos Vernardakis from Saint Petersburg whoare the donors of a large amount for the completion of the museums.