Nobel Peace Prize Medals Have Been Sold at Auction for Millions

The Nobel Peace Prize medal has been sold at auction for millions of dollars despite the Nobel Committee’s stipulation that the prize cannot be revoked, shared or transferred.

High-profile sales include Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov’s 2022 auction of his 2021 prize for a record-breaking $103.5 million to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees, and James Watson’s 2014 sale for over $4 million. Francis Crick’s medal fetched over $2 million, and the 1936 prize awarded to Carlos Saavedra Lamas sold for $1.1 million in 2014.

Not all attempts have brought large returns: John Nash’s 1994 medal sold for under $1 million in 2019, Kenneth Wilson’s 1982 prize failed to reach a minimum bid of $450,000 in 2016, and William Faulkner’s did not sell in 2013 after bidding stalled at $425,000. Since the 1980s, the Nobel medal has been made with 18-karat recycled gold, according to the Nobel Committee.

The sales have fed an ethical debate after Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado offered to share hers with President Trump and said she had “presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize” during a private lunch. It was not immediately clear if she had given the actual prize and if he had accepted it.

Key Topics

World, Nobel Peace Prize, Dmitry Muratov, Maria Corina Machado, Nobel Committee, James Watson