Rabindranath Tagore's 1913 Nobel gold medal and 49 other items were stolen from the Visva-Bharati museum in March 2004 and have not been recovered

Rabindranath Tagore founded Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, West Bengal, and the university kept his Nobel medal and other belongings in its museum. In March 2004 thieves took 50 items, including the gold Nobel medal and gold medallions he had received. The Tribune reported on 27 March 2004 that security staff were reportedly watching the Indo-Pakistan cricket match on television, that only the cupboards holding valuables were broken open, and that forensic experts found 26 fingerprints. Eight people were detained at first. West Bengal sealed its borders with neighbouring states and countries. A public interest petition asked the Calcutta High Court for a CBI inquiry. The medal was not found. In May 2005 Sweden's Nobel Foundation gave the university two replicas, one gold and one bronze, at a ceremony at Santiniketan attended by India's foreign minister. In 2016 West Bengal police arrested a folk singer, Pradip Bauri, accused of sheltering the thieves^†; reports at the time said the medal was still missing. The gold replica is kept in a strongroom and the bronze one is displayed with the citation.