Seti I's empty sarcophagus was sold to the architect John Soane in 1824, and Soane obtained an Act of Parliament so his son could not inherit it

Seti I, father of Ramesses II, was buried in tomb KV17 in a sarcophagus carved from one block of calcite. Robbers smashed its lid in antiquity, and priests later moved his body; it was found in the royal cache in 1881. On 18 October 1817 Giovanni Belzoni, a former circus strongman working for the British consul-general Henry Salt, entered the tomb. The sarcophagus left Egypt under a permit granted to Salt, sailed from Alexandria on the frigate Diana in 1821 and was shown at the British Museum. The museum bought Salt's collection but would not meet the £2,000 price for the sarcophagus. Belzoni died of dysentery at Gwato in Benin on 3 December 1823. On 12 May 1824 John Soane bought it for £2,000, his most expensive purchase, and lowered it into the basement of his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In March 1825 he showed it at three evening parties for about 900 guests. Soane had a long feud with his son George, who had called him in print "a cheat, a charlatan and a copyist." In 1833 Soane obtained a private Act of Parliament giving his house and collection to trustees for the nation. George petitioned against it, and William Cobbett told the Commons it would "reverse the fundamental laws of hereditary succession." The bill passed. Soane died in January 1837. The sarcophagus is still in his basement, and entry is free.