Nobel Prize inseparable from winner but medal can be given away, award body says

The daughter of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the award on behalf of her mother, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Norway, Wednesday Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

OSLO -- The Nobel Peace Prize remains inseparably linked to the person or organization that won it, though the medal can be given away, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday, a day after last year’s winner gave her medal to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave her medal on Thursday to Trump, who thanked her for it. The White House released a photo of Trump and Machado, with Trump holding up a gold-colored frame displaying it, and a White House official said Trump intends to keep it.

Machado’s award also consists of 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,” the award body said in a statement.

“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 organization has been awarded the prize, said the five-strong award committee.

“The prize itself – the honor and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organization 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.

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 U.N. office in Geneva.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche. Editing by Essi Lehto, Mark Potter and Peter Graff)