Sweden's Nobel Foundation on Saturday handed over two replicas of the stolen Nobel medallion of Rabindranath Tagore to the Vishwabharati University authorities.

External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh formally handed over the gold and silver replicas, stolen in March 2004, to Vice-Chancellor Dr Sujit Basu at the university campus in Shantiniketan.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, West Bengal Governor G K Gandhi, Swedish Ambassador to India Ingaerikson Fogh and Nobel winner Amartya Sen were present.

The handover was accompanied by ceremonial singing of Rabindra Sangeet by students of the university.

The gold replica will be stored in a strong room of Vishwabharati while the silver replica will be put on display along with the citation of the Nobel Foundation at Uttarayan complex.

The original Nobel medallion, along with some memorabilia of the Tagore family, was stolen from the museum at Rabindra Bhavan on March 25, 2004.