Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned his Nobel Peace Prize, to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees, on Monday night for $103.5 million.
The live auction happened on World Refugee Day.
Muratov was awarded the gold medal just this last October 2021. He helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down just this March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with Philippine journalist, Maria Ressa.
It was Muratov’s idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. He said the donation,
is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.”
Muratov has said the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Heritage Auctions, which handled the sale, could not confirm the identity of the buyer but said the $103.5 million sale translates to $100 million Swiss francs, hinting that the buyer is European.
Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA, sold his.
You can help the refugees yourself by giving any amount directly to UNICEF.
A Nobel Peace Prize medal put up for auction by a Russian journalist to help Ukrainian child refugees sold for $103.5 million to an anonymous buyer.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 21, 2022
Dimitri Muratov will donate the proceeds to UNICEF. https://t.co/X9RYQmwB47
(Photos, Nobel Peace Prize, Wikimedia Commons; via Politico)
