Nobel Prize winner Muratov medal auctioned for more than 103 million dollars

The medal of the Russian Nobel Prize winner Dmitri Muratov has fetched more than 103 million dollars at an auction in New York. The buyer made the offer over the phone, when the counter stood at about $17 million.

Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. He is the founder and, until a few years ago, editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Muratov himself was at the auction and gave a speech. He donates the proceeds to Unicef, which helps children displaced by the war in Ukraine. “We want to give back their future,” Muratov said earlier.

‘A telephone call came at 17 million’

Heritage Auctions spokesman Jacco Scheper said the $103.5 million bid sparked disbelief from those in attendance. He says that the bids started at just under $800,000.

“From a million dollars it went up in steps of a hundred thousand dollars. It went quite smoothly and with every million higher there was applause in the hall. Then somewhere around 17 million came that telephone offer of more than a hundred million dollars.”

According to Scheper, the auctioneer then offered the opportunity to cross it, but that turned out to be a bridge too far for those present. It is not clear who the buyer is and where he or she comes from.

Scheper calls the amount unprecedented. He points out that such amounts are only paid for masterpieces by painters such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh. The most expensive coin ever auctioned is a 1933 dollar piece that fetched $16 million and that was by far the record.

Muratov shared the Nobel Prize in 2021 with Filipino journalist Maria Ressa. Both have championed freedom of speech and the freedom of the press in their countries, the Nobel Committee emphasized.

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