• Machado gave 2025 Peace Prize medal to Trump in Oval Office ceremony
• Nobel Committee lists historical examples including gift to Nazi propagandist
• Prize honor remains “inseparably linked” to original laureate forever

OSLO (TDR) — The Norwegian Nobel Committee issued a pointed clarification Friday that its Peace Prize remains permanently linked to the original winner regardless of who physically possesses the medal, one day after Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado gave her 2025 award to President Donald Trump.

In a statement titled “The Nobel Prize and the Laureate Are Inseparable,” the committee emphasized that while laureates are free to give away, sell or donate their physical medals, the honor itself cannot be transferred.

“The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee,” the committee stated. “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.”

Trump Receives Medal In Oval Office

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Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump on Thursday during an Oval Office visit, placing it in a golden frame with text crediting the president’s “extraordinary leadership in promoting peace through strength.”

The White House released photos of Trump holding the framed medal, with officials confirming he intends to keep it. Machado’s complete award included the gold medal, a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns worth approximately $1.19 million.

Speaking on Fox & Friends Friday morning, Machado said Trump “deserved” the prize and she was giving it to him “on behalf of the people of Venezuela.”

The committee carefully avoided mentioning Trump or Machado by name in its statement but made clear its position.

“The Committee does not comment on laureates’ subsequent statements, decisions, or actions” after a Peace Prize recipient has been selected, the statement noted. “Any ongoing assessments or choices made by laureates must be understood as their own responsibility.”

Historical Precedents Include Nazi Gift

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The Nobel Committee provided several historical examples of laureates parting with their physical prizes, including one particularly controversial case involving Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister.

Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, gave his medal to Joseph Goebbels in 1943 as a gesture of Nazi support.

“In 1943, the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun travelled to Germany and met with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. After returning to Norway, he sent his Nobel medal to Goebbels as a gesture of thanks for the meeting,” the committee stated.

Hamsun, an ardent Nazi sympathizer who met personally with Adolf Hitler, wrote a reverential obituary for the führer in May 1945 praising him as “a warrior for humankind.” His reputation was destroyed after World War II, though his literary works continue to be studied. The whereabouts of Hamsun’s medal remain unknown.

Other Notable Medal Transfers

The committee listed additional precedents demonstrating that laureates retain freedom over their physical prizes while the honor remains unchanged.

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov sold his 2021 Peace Prize medal for $100 million in 2022, donating the proceeds to UNICEF to help Ukrainian refugee children fleeing Russia’s invasion.

The widow of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan donated his 2001 Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma to the U.N. office in Geneva in 2024.

The committee also referenced numerous medals loaned to museums or donated to institutions over the decades.

Prize Cannot Be Revoked Or Shared

The Nobel Committee had previously stressed before Machado’s Oval Office visit that a prize “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” according to Nobel Foundation statutes.

“A laureate cannot share the prize with others, nor transfer it once it has been announced,” the committee clarified. “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 statement emphasized that winners are free to “keep, give away, sell, or donate” the physical components but cautioned that only one example involved a laureate traveling abroad to personally honor a political figure — the Hamsun-Goebbels case.

Historical Record Remains Unchanged

According to the committee, Machado’s name will remain permanently in Nobel Prize records as the 2025 Peace Prize laureate regardless of Trump’s possession of the medal.

The award recognizes Machado’s opposition leadership against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom U.S. forces captured in a military operation earlier this month that resulted in approximately 100 deaths according to Venezuelan sources.

Machado credited Trump’s administration with Maduro’s removal, though she has been sidelined by the Trump administration which backed Maduro’s former vice president Delcy Rodriguez as interim leader rather than Machado herself.

The Nobel Committee’s Friday statement serves as a reminder that while physical Nobel Prize medals may change hands through gifts, sales or donations, the historical record of who earned the honor remains immutable — whether that recipient later chose to give their medal to a U.S. president or a Nazi propagandist.

Will future laureates follow Machado’s precedent of gifting medals to political figures, or will the Hamsun comparison discourage the practice?

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