But the National Trust still had to pay £7,000 last week to buy back two stolen silver plates after a 10-year legal battle in Malta.

The plates were stolen more than 12 years ago in a £250,000 heist at Tatton Park.

But an antiques' expert - with close ties to the National Trust who was on holiday with his wife in Malta - spotted the embossed plates a year later.

They were in the window of an antiques' shop in St Lucy Street in Valletta.

"It was an extraordinary series of events," said Maggie McKean, who was collections' manager at Tatton at the time of the heist.

"The man's wife was visiting Tatton and casually mentioned to a room steward that they had seen the missing plates in Malta."

It led to an international inquiry by Wilmslow CID who jetted out to Malta with National Trust's historic buildings' representative Julian Gibbs to verify the plates. But the antique shop owner in Malta, Sergio Zampa, successfully argued through the Maltese courts that he had bought the plates in good faith from a tall, blonde Englishman who had told him the plates originated from an inheritance.

It meant the National Trust had no option after 10 years of toil, but to simply buy back the plates from Mr Zampa.

Mr Gibbs is now planning the homecoming of the ornate 18th century plates, which will be returned to the dining room of Tatton's Mansion sometime in the next few months.

"When you've waited 13 years for them a specific date doesn't matter," said Mr Gibbs.

"It is a complicated story but one that shows that the Trust do try their utmost to retrieve what is theirs and get them back on show to the nation."