Dmitry Muratov, an award-winning Russian journalist has raised more than $100 million for Ukrainian children by auctioning off his Nobel Peace Prize.
Muratov who was awarded the gold medal in
October 2021, having helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya
Gazeta, smashed the record for the highest sum paid for the medal last night in
New York City. He raised $103.5 million (£84.5 million), a sum 27 times
higher than the old record set eight years ago.
The journalist will be giving the money to
Ukrainian child refugees to give them ‘a chance for a future’. Proceeds from
the auction will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children
displaced by the war.
Ahead of the auction, Mr Muratov said he was
particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the
conflict in Ukraine. ‘We want to return their future,’ he said.
Previously, the most ever paid for a Nobel Prize
medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of
DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million (£3.9
million).
Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold
contained in the medal would be worth about $10,000 (£8,156) alone.
Mr Muratov has been highly critical of Russia’s
2014 annexation of Crimea and the war launched in February. It has caused
nearly five million Ukrainians to flee their country, creating the largest
humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. UNICEF estimated back in
March that 2 million children had been among those forced to flee.
Source:Peacefmonline