Saturday, May 7 2005 17:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Santiniketan: Gold and gilt bronze replicas of the priceless Nobel Medal of Rabindranath Tagore, stolen over a year ago, today (May 7, 2005) replaced the original one awarded to the poet in 1913 for his masterpiece 'Geetanjali'.

The replicas gifted by the Nobel Foundation, were formally handed over by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh to Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Sujit Basu, as vedic hymns and Rabindrasangeet were sung.

"The day will go down as another memorable day in the history of Santiniketan. Today's installation gives a healing touch to the minds of Tagore lovers deeply hurt by the theft of Gurudev's Nobel medal," the vice-chancellor said.

Coming exactly a year after a formal request was made to the Nobel Foundation to replace the national treasure stolen along with some other Tagore memorabilia from the Uttarayan complex of the University on March 25 last year (2004), the gesture also signified another milestone in Indo-Swedish relations.

"The bonding between India and Sweden were strengthened by the relation of my country with Visva-Bharati," Swedish Ambassador in India Inguerikson Fogh said at the ceremony hoping that the bonds would grow stronger in future.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that Sweden's help in restoring the medallions at Santiniketan was a great moment.

Memories of the theft that shook the nation were refreshed when Lok Sabha Speaker and local MP Somnath Chatterjee conceded that despite the best efforts of investigating agencies the original had not been recovered.