In another episode of the series, Fennell tracks down one of the men who as a university student, on Christmas Day, 1950, stole the famous Scottish Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and repatriated it, albeit briefly, back across the northern border.

In London, we meet tour guide Alice Procter, the Australian conductor of Uncomfortable Art Tours, who sheds light on the story of one of the most celebrated of Britain’s Crown Jewels, the Koh-i-Noor. One of the largest cut diamonds in the world, it was given to Queen Victoria by the Sikh Maharaja Duleep Singh after the annexation of the Punjab. The Maharaja himself was exiled to England where he became a favourite of the Queen and, as Fennell shows us, is buried in a church graveyard near Cambridge.

And it wasn’t just the British stealing stuff. One episode is about stuff the Australians stole – the Shellal Mosaic, a sixth-century Roman Empire church floor that was uncovered during World War I by Australian troops while they were building trenches during the second battle of Gaza. That mosaic was shipped to Canberra after the war and is now in the Australian War Memorial.

Shooting a documentary in locations around the world is always going to present challenges, and Pappas admits that the cheeky name of the series proved problematic. “Trying to convince institutions in Britain to let us in with the title that we have could be quite tricky.” Her team was up front with the people they were dealing with. “This show genuinely wants to have an open and honest conversation,” Pappas says. “There’s no black and white, and we are in no way suggesting that there is.”

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In one clip, when former British PM David Cameron laments that if you started returning things the British Museum would be empty, the debate about looted artefacts is already gathering momentum.

“Some have been returned, some will be returned, some will never be returned, and some shouldn’t be returned,” Pappas says. “Definitely the tide has turned in how people are looking at things. One of our interviewees says that when you look at an object and it’s not from there, you need to ask the question why is it here, and how did it get here? And sometimes it’s complicated to know where to go back to, like with the Koh-i-Noor diamond.”

And then there’s Joanna Mendelssohn’s beloved Chinese guardian statue. “Should we return something taken so long ago,” Mendelssohn asks. “My personal feeling is if China wants it they should have it. But that’s not a discussion for people such as us. That’s at the Penny Wong level of discussions.”

Stuff The British Stole is on ABC, Tuesday, 8pm and iview.