June 22, 2022: -On Monday, the Nobel Peace Prize that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was auctioning off to grow money for Ukrainian child refugees sold for $103.5 million, which shatters the old record for a Nobel.
A spokesperson for Heritage Auctions, handling the sale, could not confirm the buyer’s identity but said the winning bid was made by proxy. The $103.5 million deal cracks to $100 million Swiss francs, hinting that the buyer is from over the sees.
The live auction was occurring on World Refugee Day. In 2014, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million, when James Watson, the co-discovery of the structure of DNA in earning him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his.
After three years, the family of his co-recipient, Francis Crick, received $2.27 million in bidding run by Heritage Auctions.
Muratov helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it closed in March between the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Muratov’s idea was to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. The idea of the donation, he added.
Muratov has said the proceeds would go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold stored in Muratov’s medal would be worth regarding $10,000.
While talking with The Associated Press before the auction, Muratov said he was concerned regarding the children who have been orphaned as of the conflict in Ukraine.
He further said that its critical international sanctions levied against Russia are not preventing humanitarian aid, like medicine for rare diseases and bone marrow transplants, from reaching those in need.
“It has to become a starting of a flash mob as an option to follow, so people auction their valuable possessions to guide the Ukrainians,” Muratov stated in a released video by Heritage Auctions, handling the sale but is not taking any share of the proceeds.
