Russian Journalist’s Nobel Medal Sells for $103.5 Million

The Nobel Peace Prize put up for auction by the Russian journalist Dmitri A. Muratov to help Ukrainian refugees sold Monday night for $103.5 million to an anonymous buyer, obliterating the record for a Nobel medal.

The proceeds will go to UNICEF to aid Ukrainian children and their families displaced by Russia’s invasion.

Mr. Muratov is the editor in chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which suspended publication in March in response to the Kremlin’s draconian press laws. In an interview last month, he said he was inspired to auction his award by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who sold his medal to help civilians in Finland after the Soviets invaded that country in 1939.

“We hope that this will serve as an example for other people like a flash mob, for other people to auction their valuable possessions, their heirlooms, to help refugees, Ukrainian refugees around the world,” Mr. Muratov said before bidding began. Read more

@nytimes