So James Watson’s little trick worked. The rich guy who bought his Nobel medal did indeed buy it to give it back to him.
Russia’s richest man has revealed that he bought US scientist James Watson’s Nobel Prize gold medal, and intends to return it to him.
Steel and telecoms tycoon Alisher Usmanov said Mr Watson “deserved” the medal, and that he was “distressed” the scientist had felt forced to sell it.
The medal, awarded in 1962 for the discovery of the structure of DNA, sold for $4.8m (£3m) at auction.
The medal was the first Nobel Prize to be put on sale by a living recipient.
Cool way to make 5 million bucks. Dignified, too.
In an interview with the Financial Times recently, Mr Watson said he had been made to feel like an “unperson” since a Sunday Times interview seven years ago in which he linked race to intelligence.
So he sold his medal in a fit of pique and in hopes that someone would pay a lot of money for it and then give it back to him. How touching. Racism gets its reward.