GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico — Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov has auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize medal to raise funds for Ukrainian child refugees. The Nobel Peace Prize has sold for $103.5 million, shattering the record for the most money ever paid for a Nobel Prize. This is all part of Muratov’s efforts to raise funds for UNICEF to help children displaced by the ongoing war in Ukraine, which includes donating the $103.5 million from Muratov’s auction as well as the accompanying $500,000 cash award from the Nobel. Muratov hopes his actions will both help refugees and encourage others to do the same, even suggesting others auction their valuables to help the cause.
The Nobel Peace Medal
Muratov was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 along with Filipino American journalist Maria Ressa for “their work in promoting independent reporting in the face of growing authoritarianism” and for their “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression” in their countries, which the Norwegian Nobel Committee determined as a “precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
Both Muratov and Ressa have published articles that have infuriated their countries’ leaders, to the point that Muratov’s newspaper had to suspend operations in March 2022 due to pressure from the Russian government.
The medal itself is made of “175 grams of 23-karat gold,” and, when melted down, is worth around $10,000, which only makes its final selling price that much more impressive. The Nobel Prize medal was accompanied by a $500,000 cash award, which Muratov donated to charity prior to auctioning off the prize medal. In fact, it was after donating the cash prize that Muratov announced the sale of the medal with high hopes of bringing in good revenue to donate to UNICEF’s child refugee fund.
The Auction
Heritage Auctions, an American auction house, carried out Muratov’s auction sale and expected that the auction would garner at least a few million dollars, as past Nobel medal auctions have. However, no one could foresee the awestriking, record-shattering results visible on June 20, 2022.
Heritage Auctions announced Muratov’s auction on June 1, 2022, International Children’s Day, and said the auction would culminate on June 20, 2022, World Refugee Day. With support from the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which called the auction a “generous act of humanitarianism,” Muratov and Heritage Auctions’ officials began the auction. Muratov explained that auctioning the award for humanitarian purposes allows him the opportunity to share the award with people. Muratov also said the auction sets “an example to follow, so [that]people [can]auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainian refugees.”
The medal itself sold for $103.5 million, a number that shattered the previous record for a Nobel and surprised even the auction house officials. James Watson, the co-discoverer of the DNA double helix structure, held the previous record, selling his 1962 Nobel Prize medal for $4.76 million in 2014.
Online bids began on June 1, with most bids coming by telephone or through online means. The winning bid came through telephonically and quickly “catapulted the bidding from the low millions to astronomical levels.” In a video posted by Heritage Auctions, spectators and officials are awestruck when the bidding rises from $16.6 million to $103.5 million, with the auctioneer believing the closing bid would be $16.8 million. “Well, that’s one way to do it,” the auctioneer commented amid cheers and applause.
Relief for Ukrainian Child Refugees
Heritage Auction’s chief strategy officer said that he knew the support was “tremendous” and that interest was high, but that he felt “awestruck” by the result. Muratov himself said that he hoped there would be “an enormous amount of solidarity” but that he did not expect it to be “such a huge amount.” The auction house immediately transferred the proceeds to UNICEF just minutes after the auction ended, a UNICEF spokesperson confirmed. The funding will go toward UNICEF’s child refugee fund, which currently looks to help children facing displacement as a consequence of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
With his charitable donation of the cash prize and the auction sale revenue, Muratov has helped child refugees through UNICEF and both he and UNICEF hope to foster awareness of the refugee crisis and inspire others to follow their example.
– Marcela Agreda L.
Photo: Flickr