Nobel medal has been sold before

In 2022, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned his Nobel Peace Prize for a record-breaking $103.5 million to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees. In 2014, James Watson sold his for over $4 million, having been awarded the medal decades earlier for co-discovering the structure of DNA.

It can, however, be sold for millions of dollars.Since the 1980s, the Nobel medal has been made with 18-karat recycled gold, according to the Nobel Committee. And, in a few auctions, it has fetched a wide range of prices. Francis Crick, who was awarded the prize with Watson, received over $2 million for his medal. The Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 1936 to Carlos Saavedra Lamas, a former foreign minister of Argentina, sold for $1.1 million in 2014.

But not all attempts to sell the medal have brought staggering returns.The 1994 medal awarded to John Nash for his work in game theory sold for under $1 million in 2019. The 1982 prize awarded to physicist Kenneth Wilson failed to reach a minimum bid of $450,000 in 2016. And William Faulkner's failed to sell in 2013, after bidding stalled at $425,000, short of the minimum.