The Russian journalist, founder of the newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’, announced that he would tame the award after the start of the invasion of Russia
The Nobel Peace Prize medal with which he was awarded in 2021 Dimitri Muratov has been auctioned this Monday by 103.5 million dollars (about 98.2 million euros)after the Russian journalist announced that would donate the prize to help the Ukrainian refugees after the beginning of the invasion of the Russian Army.
The auction has been carried out by Heritage Auctions, based in the United States, and has been broadcast live by the Russian newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta‘, founded by the journalist and considered one of the main opposition media within Russia.
The funds obtained in the auction will go to the humanitarian response of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine. For now, it has not transpired who the buyer is, although it has been confirmed that the figure is a record for the auction of a Nobel Prize.
“Muratov, with the full support of the ‘Novaya Gazeta’ staff, allows us to put this medal up for auction not only as an object, but as a comor an act that he hopes will positively impact the lives of millions of Ukrainian refugees“, Heritage Auctions has said, according to the German news agency DPA.
Likewise, the auction house has indicated that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has endorsed the auction. “This generous act of humanitarianism is very much in line with the spirit of Alfred Nobel,” said the committee’s director, Olav Njolstad, in a letter confirming the body’s approval.
Muratov, who founded the newspaper in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union, was attacked in April with red paint while on a train in Russia. The assailant shouted: ‘Muratov, this is for our boys’, in apparent reference to the military involved in the offensive in Ukraine.
The journalist was awarded in 2021 together with fellow Filipino journalist Maria Ressa for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression and independent journalism and, by extension, democracy and peace.