Kolkata, March 25
The Nobel Prize won by Rabindranath Tagore and his other valuable belongings, which were kept at Rabindra Museum, near Uttarayan at Santiniketan, were found stolen this morning.
The security staff on duty, while reporting around 8 am, found the museum room ransacked and one of the steel-frame windows broken. The staff immediately reported the matter to Dr Sujit Bose, who, after reaching on the spot, found that the Nobel Prize, which Tagore received in 1913, had been missing.
The gold fountain pen, a gold-plated wrist watch and the citation, which Tagore received from the Nobel Prize committee along with the cash awards, were stolen from the museum.
The police was called in and an intensive search was conducted. But till late evening, none of the missing items had been recovered.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee expressed concern over the incident and was surprised at how such an incident could take place inside the protected zone at Santiniketan.
The Prime Minister, who is the Chancellor of Vishva Bharati, was informed about the incident by university authorities.
The Chief Minister said he personally spoke to the Vice-Chancellor and asked him to inquire into the matter. The CID was ordered to conduct a detailed probe.
Several intellectuals and the followers of Tagore condemned the incident. Mr Amitava Chowdhury, a former member of the Vishva Bharati Board, said there was no proper maintenance of the Tagore museum and preservation of other historic documents at Santiniketan.
