In an unexpected and controversial gesture, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House on Thursday. Machado described the act as a symbolic recognition of Trump’s role in supporting democratic freedoms in Venezuela.
Calling it “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” Machado said the gesture reflected her appreciation for Trump’s stance against authoritarianism in the region.
Nobel Committee Clarifies Rules on Prize Ownership
The move prompted a swift clarification from the Norwegian Nobel Institute and the Nobel Committee, which emphasised that such a transfer holds no legal or symbolic validity.
According to the Nobel Foundation’s statutes, rooted in Alfred Nobel’s will, a Nobel Peace Prize — once awarded — cannot be transferred, reassigned, or shared. While a laureate may choose to give away or sell the physical medal or prize money, the official title and honour permanently remain with the original recipient.
“The status of a Nobel laureate is non-transferable,” the Nobel authorities reiterated, underscoring a core principle that has guided the prize for over a century.
A History of Nobel Medals Being Sold or Gifted
Although Machado’s symbolic gesture has no formal standing, history shows that Nobel laureates have previously parted with their medals, often for political or humanitarian causes.
In 2021, Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Filipino journalist Maria Ressa for defending freedom of expression. A year later, Muratov auctioned his medal for a record $103.5 million, donating the proceeds to UNICEF to support Ukrainian children displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Similarly, Danish physicists Niels Bohr and August Krogh auctioned their Nobel medals in 1939 to raise funds for Finnish War Relief following the Soviet invasion of Finland. Those medals were later donated to Danish museums.
Bohr’s son, Aage Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 along with Ben Mottelson and James Rainwater, also had his medal auctioned — first in 2011 and again in 2019.
Controversial and Unusual Nobel Gestures
Not all instances of parting with a Nobel medal have been charitable. Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, a Nobel laureate in Literature in 1920 and later a Nazi sympathiser, presented his medal to Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister, during World War II.
In another notable case, James D. Watson, who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the structure of DNA along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, became the first living Nobel laureate to sell his medal. While Watson intended to fund scientific research and conservation, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov purchased the medal and returned it to him, saying the scientist “deserved” to keep it.
Economist and mathematician John Nash, awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on game theory, also saw his medal auctioned at Christie’s in 2019 for $735,000, with proceeds going to the John C.M. Nash Trust.
Symbolism Versus Statute
While Machado’s presentation of her Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump has drawn global attention, Nobel authorities have made it clear that symbolic gestures do not alter official recognition. The honour, they stress, remains inseparably tied to the laureate named by the Nobel Committee.