Can a Nobel Peace Prize be given away? Committee breaks silence after Machado hands over medal to Trump

In its statement, the committee said a Nobel Peace Prize laureate receives two core symbols of the award — a gold medal and a diploma — while the prize money is granted separately. However, it stressed that the identity of the laureate is permanent and unalterable.

“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 committee said.

It further underlined that a Nobel Peace Prize cannot be shared, transferred, or revoked once announced. “The decision is final and applies for all time,” the statement said.

At the same time, the committee noted that the statutes of the Nobel Foundation impose no restrictions on how a laureate may dispose of the physical symbols of the prize. “A laureate is free to keep, give away, sell, or donate the medal, the diploma, or the prize money,” it added.

The clarification followed the release of images by the White House showing Machado handing the Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump in the Oval Office. In a statement accompanying the photograph, the White House said: “President Donald J. Trump meets with María Corina Machado of Venezuela, during which she presented the President with her Nobel Peace Prize in recognition and honour.”

Facts about the Nobel Peace Prize medal

The medal is cast in 18-carat gold, weighs 196 grams, and measures 6.6 centimetres in diameter. It was designed in 1901 by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland.

 The obverse bears a portrait of Alfred Nobel, while the reverse depicts three naked men with their arms around one another’s shoulders, symbolising fraternity. The Latin inscription pro pace et fraternitate gentium translates as “for peace and the fraternity of nations.”