New Delhi: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado handed over her Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House on Thursday, calling it a gesture of appreciation for what she described as his “unique commitment” to her country’s freedom.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee clarified that such an action carries no legal or symbolic standing. The Nobel Institute reiterated that once a Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, it cannot be transferred, shared or revoked, in line with the statutes of the Nobel Foundation and the provisions of Alfred Nobel’s will.
While a laureate may choose to give away, sell or donate the physical medal or prize money, the official recognition as a Nobel Peace Prize winner remains permanently with the original recipient.
The Committee also noted that laureates parting with their medals is not uncommon and does not alter the historical record.
Nobel laureates who parted with their medals
Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, who jointly received the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, auctioned his medal in 2022 for a record USD 103.5 million. He donated the entire amount to UNICEF to support Ukrainian children displaced by the Russia–Ukraine war.
Danish physicists Niels Bohr and August Krogh auctioned their Nobel medals in 1939 to raise funds for Finnish war relief following the Soviet invasion of Finland, with the medals later donated to Danish museums. Bohr’s son, Aage Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 alongside Ben Mottelson and James Rainwater, also sold his medal at auctions in 2011 and again in 2019.
Other notable examples include Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, the 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, who gifted his medal to Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels as a gesture of support during World War II. Scientist James D Watson, awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the structure of DNA, became the first living laureate to sell his medal, intending to fund research and conservation. The medal was later bought by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who returned it to Watson.
Economist John Nash’s Nobel Prize medal was also auctioned at Christie’s in 2019 for USD 735,000, with the proceeds directed to the John CM Nash Trust.