Breaking Record, Russian Journalist's Nobel Peace Prize Sells IDR 1.5 Trillion In Auction To Help Ukrainian Children

Dmitry Muratov. (Wikimedia Commons/Olaf Kosinsky)

JAKARTA - The Nobel Peace Prize auctioned by a Russian journalist broke a record when it was auctioned to help Ukrainian children, with all proceeds going to the UN agency dealing with refugee children in Ukraine.

The Nobel medal for Dmitry Muratov, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and editor of an independent Russian newspaper, sold at auction in New York for $103.5 million.

All proceeds from the auction, which coincides with World Refugee Day on Monday, will be donated to UNICEF's humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugee children, Heritage Auctions said in a statement.

According to US media reports, the auction of the Muratov prize broke the record for the Nobel medals that have been auctioned, with reports saying that the previous highest sale was just under $5 million.

"This award is unlike any other auction offer to present," Heritage Auctions said in a statement before the sale.

"Mr Muratov, with the full support of his staff at the Novaya Gazeta, allowed us to auction his medal not as a collectible but as an event that he hopes will positively impact the lives of millions of Ukrainian refugees."

Dmitry Muratov. (Wikimedia Commons/Olaf Kosinsky)

Muratov, who co-founded the Novaya Gazeta in 1991, won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Maria Ressa of the Philippines for what the Nobel Prize committee said was "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace."

Furthermore, Muratov, who pledged to donate about USD 500.000 of the prize money to charity, dedicated his Nobel to six Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been murdered since 2000.

The list includes journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Russia's war in Chechnya, who was killed in 2006 in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building.

Muratov's Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which is highly critical of President Vladimir Putin and his government, suspended operations in Russia in March after warnings from the state over its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Pressure on Russia's liberal media has continued under Putin, Russia's supreme leader since 1999, but it intensified after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24. Muratov was attacked with red paint in April.

Russia's mainstream media and state-controlled organizations are following closely the language used by the Kremlin to describe the conflict with Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation" to ensure Russia's security and destroy its neighbour. Kyiv and its Western allies say it is a war of unwarranted aggression.