Dmitry Muratov has auctioned off his 2021 Nobel Peace Prize medal on Monday for record breaking $103.5 million. The money will be used to help children displaced by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Heritage Auctions are the organizers and have withheld the identity of the winning bidder. Muratov received the Nobel Peace Prize award along with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines for their work to preserve free speech in their nations.
Muratov is the editor in chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper suspended publication in March due to the Kremlin’s spiking draconian press laws. He mention to The New York Times that derived inspiration through the Danish physicist Niels Bohr who sold his medal to help civilian who got affected during Soviet invasion in Finland.
After the auction, Muratov said “there was going to be an enormous amount of solidarity, but I was not expecting this to be such a huge amount.” The former record price paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million in 2014.
