The treasures from Vergina, and other precious discoveries of the 70's, made the construction of an extension to the Museum inevitable: the new wing was inaugaurated in July 1980 with the exhibition Alexander the Great. This same year saw the begininng of the excavation of the cemetery at Sindos, with its rich finds of gold, and the Sindos exhibition was opened to the public in October 1982.

There followed in 1984 a repeat of the exhibition of finds from Vergina and Derveni, in 1985 an exhibition on ancient Thessaloniki, and in 1989 an exhibition of new finds dating from the Archaic and Classical periods at the ground floor of the New Wing.