After Machado’s gesture to Trump, Nobel body reacts: ‘Prize inseparably linked with laureate’

The statement clarified that a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot share the prize with others, nor transfer it once it has been announced

• Nobel Prize stays linked to laureate, regardless of medal's fate
• Laureates may give away, sell, or donate their Nobel medal, diploma, or prize money.
• The Nobel Peace Prize cannot be revoked or transferred once awarded

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The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday that the Nobel Prize remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation that bagged it, even as the medal can be given away.

The statement came after last year's winner gave her medal to US President Donald Trump.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado handed her medal to Trump on Thursday, with the US president thanking her for the gesture.

The White House shared a photo of Trump holding the medal in a gold-coloured frame, and an official said he intends to retain it. Machado’s award also comprises a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.19 million).

“Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize. Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else’s possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” the award body said in a statement.

The statement clarified that a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot share the prize with others, nor transfer it once it has been announced. A Nobel Peace Prize can also never be revoked, it said, adding that “the decision is final and applies for all time.”

However, it added that there are no restrictions in the statutes of the Nobel Foundation on what a laureate may do with the medal, the diploma, or the prize money. “This means that a laureate is free to keep, give away, sell, or donate these items," it added.

‘Inseparably linked’

The medal and the diploma are physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the prize, said the five-strong award committee.

"The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee," it said.

The committee, which did not refer to Trump and Machado by name in its statement, said it does not comment on a laureate's statements, decisions or actions after the prize is announced.

“Any ongoing assessments or choices made by laureates must be understood as their own responsibility,” it said.

It was not the first time a Nobel laureate has given away the medal. In 1943 Nobel literature laureate Knut Hamsun gave his to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

In 2022, Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov sold his medal for $100 million to raise money for the U.N. children's fund UNICEF to help Ukrainian refugee children.

In 2024, the widow of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan donated his 2001 Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma to the UN office in Geneva.