Sukhvinder Singh, a night watchman at the property, described his shock at being pushed aside by two men who entered the building late on 8 September.

Assisted by a Punjabi interpreter, Mr Singh told the court that he noticed a painting in a toilet which had not been there earlier that evening, describing it as depicting a “doll” who was “flying something like a kite”.

He said: “After that when I saw the painting there I heard some noise on the other side of the (front) door.

“Somebody was trying to insert a white plastic bit into the door and trying to open the door.”

Mr Singh told jurors he opened the door to find a white man and a black man.

“I was very shocked,” he continued. “They pushed me out of the way and went inside. I tried to ask them in Punjabi, ‘who are you?'”

He said they went “straight” to the bathroom, picked up the painting and left.

“The white male was just saying: ‘Sorry sorry, brother, sorry sorry’ in English,” Mr Singh went on.

“I said ‘why did you come inside, how did you come inside?’

“They came in a rush, they just came in a great hurry, they were there barely for two to three minutes, they picked it up and left.

“The only thing that was said was ‘sorry’.”

Love, of North Stifford, Grays, Essex, denies burglary and the trial continues.