ambassadors and consuls for donations and aid in building the collection. The appeal was successful and objects from all over the world kept flowing in. In 1839, Leemans, now appointed director, bought some 100 vases with funds from the king. They belonged to a collection that had been excavated a decade before in Italy and belonged to Lucien Bonaparte. Leemans published this collection in 1840 and had published the Egyptian collection the year before. The Etruscan collection was published by a colleague. Publications would continue and the next period in the history of the museum is described as "a period of consolidation after the restless pioneer years". History of the housing Before and under Reuvens Finding an adequate building for the archaeological collection had been a matter of ongoing strife between Reuvens, the trustees of the museum and the Dutch government. When Reuvens was first appointed professor of archaeology, and thereby curator of the Papenbroek collection, the antiquities were housed in a building of the botanical gardens of the university. The damp atmosphere caused serious damage to the sculptures, however, and the collection had already outgrown its housing which resulted in several statues being placed outside. In 1821, the archaeological cabinet was moved to a new wing of the Museum of Natural History. Reuvens was unhappy with this location as well though, because it was much too small for the growing collection and because the windows provided far from enough light. In 1824, Reuvens was offered some more room of the Museum of Natural History, but Reuvens refused the insufficient extra space and proposed an entirely new building designed especially for the National Museum of Antiquities, which would also give him a lecture hall, restoration facilities and other required rooms. Reuvens plans for this new building would prove much too expensive unfortunately. The collection continued growing however and the room granted to it was obviously insufficient. Several other solutions were sought, including redecorating a medieval church and giving Reuvens part of a new academy building. Reuvens refused these options however, because they weren't real solutions. This led to considering a much more drastic plan: moving the museum altogether to another city. Brussels, Amsterdam and the Hague were considered. Reuvens argued against all of these, using Leiden's thriving academic climate in the humanities as a main argument for keeping the collection there. Eventually, Amsterdam became the prime candidate, being the capital