Santiniketan, May 7: The Royal Swedish Academy today presented Visva-Bharati with a golden duplicate of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medal and a bronze replica of the original.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which took the help of international agencies, drew a blank after a year-long search for the medal and other memorabilia stolen from the Visva-Bharati museum on March 25, 2004, inviting criticism from all quarters.

Only a motley crowd had gathered to witness the arrival of the replica, with most students staying away from the simple function in front of Tagore’s mud house, Shyamali. ?They could not retrieve the original one. This is a replica. Moreover, we were busy with our classes and did not have time to witness the event,? said a student of Sangeet Bhavan.

At 11.30 am, foreign minister K. Natwar Singh handed over the gold duplicate and a bronze replica to Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Sujit Basu as the Swedish ambassador to India, Inga Eriksson Fogh, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen looked on.

?I feel really proud to take part in such a function. He (Tagore) was a great representative of the spiritual East to the people of the West,? said the envoy.

?Santiniketan and all Tagore lovers throughout the world were shocked, startled and stunned after the news broke about the burglary. However, in this spontaneous friendly gesture by the Swedish Academy and the Swedish government, we feel satisfied at the restoration of the medal to its right place. It is like a healing touch to the pain and agony suffered by us,? said Basu.

Mukherjee described the occasion as one of pain and joy. ?It is pain because we could not preserve the nation’s property and joy because our sensitive friends from Sweden have made this replacement possible,? said the state Congress president.

However, not many people shared this view, with people preferring to spend time indoors than flock to Shyamali in the sweltering heat.

In Calcutta, Youth Congress activists staged a demonstration against the ?inefficient? police department. ?What is the use of replicas? We have had to beg for a second medal, but did little to get back the original,? said a protester.