The Great Nobel Medal Shenanigans
Hold onto your hats, folks – Nobel medals have a knack for disappearing in the most bizarre ways. From snickering chemists to bungled auctions, here’s a whirlwind tour of the most unforgettable mishaps.
Dissolved in Acid
- 1940 Denmark: The Nazis were eyeing precious gold. Two 23‑carat medals – Max von Laue (1914) and James Frank (1925) – were on a laboratory shelf at Niels Bohr’s Institute.
- Solution of choice: Aqua regia (a rainbow‑color liquid) dissolved the gold drums, keeping Nazis oblivious.
- Post‑war twist: Nobel laureate George de Hevesy remelted the gold in 1950, handed it to the Nobel Foundation, and the medals were reborn in 1952.
- Side story: Norwegian author Knut Hamsun actually slid his Nobel Literature medal into the hands of German propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in 1943. His medal? Still a source of mystery.
Under the Hammer
- Aristide Briand’s Peace Prize (1926): Dropped in a 2008 auction for a cool €12,200 (about $14,000). Simple price, big legacy.
- James Watson’s Nobel (DNA pioneer, 1962): Sold for a staggering $4.1 million in 2014, excluding taxes. The buyer, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, returned the medal shortly after.
Stop, Thief
- 2015 Saint‑Nazaire theft: The French museum purchased Briand’s medal for a modest sum but it vanished in a burglary that’s still cold.
- 2017 India misadventure: Robbers claimed the 2014 Peace Prize medal, only to find it was a replica. The real medal was safe and sound in a museum.
- 2004 Tagore theft: Rabindranath Tagore’s 1913 Literature medal slipped into the hands of a thief and has never resurfaced.
Confiscated
- Shirin Ebadi’s 2003 Peace Medal: Tehran’s tax office allegedly seized her prized medal to cover $410,000 in back taxes. After global uproar, the medal was returned, proving human rights voices still win the day.
Gold War
- 1997 Economics Mix‑Ups: Soviet laureate Leonid Kantorovich and American Tjalling Koopmans inadvertently swapped their medals upon return. Four years of diplomatic wrangling later, each got back his rightful gold.
- Funny note: Only Peace & Economics medals carry names on the edge; the rest sport engraved faces on the reverse.
Showing off to Girls
- 1999 Oslo: Doctors Without Borders snagged their Nobel medal at a Grand Hotel suite. The next day, it was back on the pedestal – only to find that a few dates had borrowed it for a night out. “Everyone was sniffing it for pure gold,” they bragged, but apparently it was more hit‑and‑miss than hype.
- Commentary from Morten Rostrup: He admitted, “It’s more about looking flashy than sealing a deal.” Still, the silver lining? Even their gold’s still shining after a bar fight.
It turns out that Nobel medals are as fragile in their travels as their recipients in their lives. Whether dissolved, auctioned, stolen, or swapped, each medal’s journey is a headline‑worthy tale that reminds us: fortune truly favors the bold (or the lucky).
