Nobel Peace Prize Winners That Gave Away Their Medal
Alfred Nobel was an entrepreneur, scientist, poet, and more. He amassed quite the fortune during his life, and in his will, Nobel set it up so that his money would be given to people who are helping make the world better. One of the most well known of his awards is the Nobel Peace Prize. In his will, he stated that is to be given to someone, "who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The first award was given in 1901, and it's decided by a panel of five people in Norway.
The award comes with a medal, ceremony, and over $1 million. It's been given to organizations like the World Food Programme and individuals like Malala Yousafzai. And most, though not all, of the award winners have kept their medals for themselves. But there are a few who no longer have theirs, including the most recent winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado who gave her medal to Donald Trump.
Trump has publicly been angling for a Nobel Peace Prize for years, and steadfast (borderline obsessed) Trump fans like his press secretary Karoline Leavitt have maintained that he should get one. Trump has been nominated for the prestigious peace prize as has Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. So now he has one of his own, kind of.
It's not often that Nobel Prize winners give up their medals
The medal is Maria Corina Machado's to do with what she wants, including giving it away. However, the Norwegian Nobel Institute has confirmed that the distinction of winning can't be transferred to someone else, so even though Trump has the medal in his possession – - adding it to Trump's collection of unexpected items – - he isn't the winner. That didn't stop Trump from bragging about it on Truth Social as well as getting judged for it. "Whoever has received the prize has received the prize," Norwegian politician Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said. "The fact that Trump accepted the medal says something about him as a type of person: a classic showoff who wants to adorn himself with other people's honors and work," via The Guardian.
Machado isn't the first person to no longer have her Nobel Peace Prize medal. Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was one of two Nobel Peace Prize winners in 2021. He received it for his work "fighting for press freedom." In 2022, he auctioned off the medal for an impressive $103.5 million to help Ukrainian children refugees.
Other Nobel award winners have also gotten rid of their medals through various means. Danish physicists Niels Bohr and August Krogh auctioned off their medals to help the Fund for Finnish Relief during World War II. Bohr also helped melt down the gold medals of some other winners to help keep them out of the hands of the Nazis. And Hemingway donated his to 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature to a Catholic church in Cuba.