Norwegian politicians have condemned Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for handing her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump with critics warning the spectacle risks dragging one of the world’s most recognized honours deeper into partisan politics.
On January 15, Machado, the recipient of the 2025 Peace Prize gave the award at a White House gathering and Trump planned to retain the framed medal which was featured in an official government photo.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee moved quickly to draw a line between possession of the medal and ownership of the prize itself.
In a statement issued in Oslo on January 16, the committee said the honour and recognition of the Nobel Peace Prize remained tied to the person or organisation formally named as laureate even if the physical symbols changed hands.
On January 9, the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute published a separate press note stating that once a Nobel Prize is announced it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred.
Kirsti Bergstø, leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party called the gesture “absurd” and stated that the peace prize could not be given away.
Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, leader of Norway’s Centre Party and a former finance minister also criticised Trump for accepting the medal and describing him as someone who wanted to decorate himself with other people’s achievements.
The Nobel Committee pointed to Nobel Foundation statutes that place no restrictions on what a laureate may do with the medal, diploma or prize money, meaning they may keep, give away, sell or donate them.
Machado’s award includes a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns in prize money.
Historically, Nobel medals have been sold and donated for everything from charity fundraising to political signalling including Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov selling his Peace Prize medal in 2022 to raise funds for UNICEF and the late UN secretary general Kofi Annan’s widow donating his Peace Prize medal and diploma to the UN office in Geneva.
The Nobel Peace Centre has also stressed on social media that a medal can change owners but the laureate title cannot.
