Sale of Nobel Peace Prize Medal Raises Over $100 Million for Ukrainian Children
The editor of the independent Russian investigative newspaper Novaïa Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, on Monday, sold his Nobel Peace Prize medal at auction for 103.5 million dollars (98 million euros) for the benefit of children displaced by the conflict in Ukraine.
Mr Muratov had won the prestigious award in 2021, alongside Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, with the committee honoring them “for their efforts to preserve freedom of expression”. He had dedicated it to his diary, Novaïa Gazetaand its collaborators “died defending people’s right to free speech”.
The sale, which took place in New York, was very animated, punctuated by many applauses and stimulated by the bidders who encouraged each other to drive the sale upwards. Mr. Muratov recorded videos of the auction screen and the atmosphere in the room.
The proceeds from the sale, won over the phone by an unnamed bidder, will be donated to Unicef’s program for Ukrainian children displaced by war, according to Heritage Auctions, which is in charge of the sale.
Known in particular for his investigations into corruption and human rights abuses in Chechnya, Novaïa Gazeta this year became the latest major newspaper to criticize the President, Vladimir Putin, and his tactics inside and outside the country. Novaïa Gazeta announced at the end of March to suspend its online and print publications in Russia until the end of the intervention in Ukraine, in full hardening of the Kremlin against the dissonant voices.
The newspaper has already paid a high price for its commitment: six of its journalists or contributors have been killed since the 1990s, including the famous journalist Anna Politkovskaïa, known for her criticisms of the Kremlin’s bloody war in Chechnya, assassinated on October 7 2006. The sponsors of this crime have never been identified.