Most people choose to be buried with just their wedding bands and best clothes, but an eccentric entrepreneur in Brazil has buried his expensive Bentley to make sure he will keep enjoying it in his afterlife.

Chiquinho Scarpa buried his Bentley Continental, which is worth more than £300,000, in the garden of his estate in Jardins, Sao Paulo, a few days ago. The funeral had every element of a real one, including a wreath for the car.

‘I decided to do as the pharaohs: I will bury my favourite car, my Bentley, in my house garden,’ the businessman announced on Facebook a few days before, adding that he was inspired by a documentary about pharaohs he had watched on TV.

But Scarpa, who got several negative comments on local media, interrupted the funeral to reveal the real purpose of his initiative: to draw attention to a national campaign in favour of organ donation.

‘I buried my car and everyone thought it was absurd when I said I was going to do that,’ he wrote on Facebook. ‘Absurd [are those who] bury their organs, which could save many lives. Nothing is more valuable. Be a donor; tell your family.’

In other reports, it seems like Scarpa’s cats had prudently left the estate in the meantime.