Located at the heart of [Lincoln’s Inn Fields] is the remarkable Sir John Soane’s Museum, the brainchild of one of England’s most imaginative architects. The museum was originally Soane’s home. John Soane (1753-1837) was the son of a bricklayer near Reading in Berkshire. He was appointed architect and surveyor to the Bank of England in 1788. The Bank was his main pre-occupation until his retirement in 1833 but his other masterpieces, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Pitzhanger Manor at Ealing (his country house), are also noteworthy.

Soane designed and built his first house at No.12, Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1792-94, which is now part of the museum. Needing more space for his collections, he purchased and rebuilt No.13 next door, where he lived until his death. In 1824, he also rebuilt No.14 using the back of its site as an extension to his museum.

The Sepulchral Chamber contains the sarcophagus of King Seti I (1303-1290 BC), one of the most important Egyptian antiquities ever to be discovered. Egyptologist Giovanni Belzoni discovered the sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings and Soane purchased it in 1824 after the British Museum refused the price of £2,000. Soane celebrated its arrival with three evening parties. He invited nearly 1000 people and hired more than 300 oil lamps to illuminate the building...

Art in the midst of law, The Hindu, India, June 17, 2007.

Queen Nefertiti's bust has been the jewel of Berlin's Egyptian Museum since 1913. It is also one of the iconic artefacts Egyptian authorities would like to borrow for the 2011 opening of their new museum now under construction near Giza. But when they recently asked to have the 3,300-year-old artefact for a three-month loan, German authorities turned them down cold.

The Egyptian response was immediate — and outraged. "We will make the lives of these museums miserable," threatened Zahi Hawass, director of the Supreme Council for Antiquities. "It will be a scientific war."

The Germans say a loan is out of the question. According to Egyptian Museum curator Dietrich Wildung, recent tests show the bust, once thought to be painted limestone, is actually a limestone core covered with a thin layer of plaster. "It's much too delicate for [the] journey," he says.

"With all the technology and means of transportation available now, the queen can travel anywhere in the world," says Egyptian Ambassador to Berlin Mohamed al-Orabi. "Nefertiti has spent 95 years [in Berlin], and we expect some appreciation. It's unacceptable to receive this denial."

If a compromise can not be found soon, German Egyptology might suffer — and a scientific war is something scholars in both countries can ill afford.

The Face That Launched an International Incident, Andrew Curry, Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, Volume 60, Number 4, July / August 2007.

Archaeologists have discovered the 3,000-year-old mummy of a high priest to the god Amun in the southern city of Luxor, antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass told the official MENA news agency today.

The 18th Dynasty mummy of Senneferi was unearthed in a tomb in the Valley of the [Nobles] — one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world — by a team from Britain's Cambridge University.

"The mummy was found in tomb 99 in the Valley of the [Nobles] on the west bank of Luxor," Hawass said...

Other mummies were found during the excavation, including one with a brain tumour, a foetus, a female mummy wrapped in plaster and others which appeared to have suffered from arthritis, Hawass said...

The AFP article claims it is Tomb 99 in the 'Valley of the Kings' which is obviously incorrect. The tomb in questions is in fact TT99 the tomb of Senneferi in the Valley of the Nobles being excavated by of Cambridge University, UK.

Three thousand year old mummy discovered, AFP via The Age, Australia, June 24, 2007.

cf. 3,000-year-old mummy found, AFP via News 24, South Africa, June 23, 2007.