A 1936 Nobel Peace Prize to be auctioned at the Stack’s Bowers Galleries Official Auction of the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Baltimore Expo on Thursday, March 27, 2014. The 1936 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Carlos Saavedra Lamas (1878–1959), former Foreign Minister of Argentina.
He was awarded the medal for his central role in negotiating the end of the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he fought for control over the Chaco Boreal region. Lamas was also recognized for his work toward an anti-war pact that was signed by 15 nations, beginning in 1933.
Designed by Gustav Vigeland and struck from dies by Erik Lindberg, this and other Nobel medals of its era were struck at the Swedish mint in Eskilstuna. The obverse depicts Nobel facing left, with an inscription including the years of his birth and death around the periphery. According to the Nobel Foundation, the reverse "represents a group of three men forming a fraternal bond," while the inscription translates to "For the peace and brotherhood of men." The medal edge inscribed PRIX NOBEL DE LA PAIX 1936 CARLOS SAAVEDRA LAMAS. Stuck in 23-karat gold, it is an impressive 65 mm diameter, and weighs 22.4 grams.
“Without reservation, the Nobel Peace Prize is the most famous medal in the world,” said Q. David Bowers, chairman emeritus of Stack’s Bowers Galleries. “It is more universal than the Pulitzer Prize, more well-known and multiples rarer than an Olympic gold medal, and revered worldwide by collectors, historians, museums curators and others. This may well represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire an example of the world’s most famous medals and one of the rarest.”
This is only the second opportunity on record to purchase a Nobel Peace Prize medal at auction, and the first in almost 30 years. The previous medal sold at auction was one of seven presented to Englishmen. The medal offered in the March Baltimore auction is the first Nobel Peace Prize ever presented to a Latin American. Previously, all recipients had been from Western Europe and the United States. There have been four more Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Latin Americans since, and one other awarded to an Argentinian after 1936.
The Nobel Peace Prize medal has been awarded 94 times since 1901. Nobel Peace Prizes have been stolen (Yasser Arafat) and recovered (Desmond Tutu). They have also been placed on permanent display in U.S. Presidential Libraries (Jimmy Carter), house museums (Jane Addams, Martin Luther King, Jr.) and the U.S. Library of Congress (Woodrow Wilson). While other Nobel awards have been sold at public auction, including prizes awarded to both Neils Bohr (awarded in 1922 and sold in 1940 to benefit the Fund for Finnish Relief) and his son Aage Bohr (awarded in 1975 and sold in 2012), and more recently, the Francis Crick medal that realized $2.27 million in 2013, there is only one instance recorded of a Nobel Peace Prize selling at auction: in November 1985, when Sotheby’s London sold the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 1903 to Sir William Cremerfor. It is unknown if it remains in private hands today.
