When in 1820 consul Henry Salt offered to sell Egyptian antiquities, including the Seti sarcophagus, to the British Museum, the British government was unprepared for the substantial investment required. The subsequent acquisition of the sarcophagus by John Soane was the catalyst in changing the government attitude to collecting antiquities for the national museum. The acceptance of a proposal made in 1835 by Giovanni D’Athanasi to excavate in Egypt turned the government from a passive recipient into an active collector of antiquities for its museum. These episodes provide insights into the mechanisms by which the British Museum’s collection was established. They also illuminate how collecting by a national museum established an object habit that linked antiquities acquisitions, nationalism, and restitution demands in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

中文翻译：

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一个有利的提议

1820 年，当领事亨利·索尔特 (Henry Salt) 提出将包括 Seti 石棺在内的埃及文物出售给大英博物馆时，英国政府并未为所需的大量投资做好准备。随后约翰·索恩 (John Soane) 对石棺的收购成为改变政府对为国家博物馆收集古物的态度的催化剂。1835 年，乔瓦尼·达萨纳西 (Giovanni D'Athanasi) 提出的在埃及挖掘的提议被接受，政府从被动的接受者变成了博物馆的积极文物收藏家。这些情节提供了对大英博物馆藏品建立机制的见解。他们还阐明了国家博物馆的收藏如何建立了一种将古物收购、民族主义、