Russian journalist sells Nobel Peace Prize for $103.5 million to help Ukrainian children

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov sold his Nobel Peace Prize for a massive $103.5 million as the proceeds will all go to child refugees from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is the most amount of money that a Nobel Prize medal has ever fetched in an auction with the previous highest being $4.76 million in 2014, when James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, sold his 1962 Nobel Prize. The identity of the buyer was not confirmed by Heritage Auctions, but they hinted that the buyer was from overseas. Muratov has been highly critical of the Russian administration from the beginning of the invasion, and he has already donated $500,000 to various different charities.

“I was hoping that there was going to be an enormous amount of solidarity, but I was not expecting this to be such a huge amount,” Muratov said in an interview according to Associated Press.

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Muratov founded the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his contribution to journalism amid government crackdowns.

The auction was expected to fetch more than $1 million but everyone was surprised with the final amount.

“I can’t believe it. I’m awestruck. Personally, I’m flabbergasted. I’m stunned. I don’t really know what happened in there,” said Joshua Benesh, the chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions.

“We knew that there was a tremendous groundswell of interest in the last couple of days by people who were moved by Dimitry’s story, by Dimitry’s act of generosity, that the global audience was listening tonight,” he added.

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