The Nobel Peace Prize that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was auctioning off to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees has sold for $103.5 million.
Monday's sale shatters the old record for a Nobel. Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was $4.76 million. Muratov was awarded the medal in October 2021. He helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication's editor-in-chief when it shut down.
That was in March, amid the Kremlin's clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“It has to become a beginning of a flash mob as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions, which handled the sale but is not taking any share of the proceeds.
