The eastern Idaho resident who wasn’t sure anyone would even bid on his 1988 Nobel Prize medal has seen his prize sell for $765,000.
Driggs resident Leon Lederman and his wife put the medal up for auction after being contacted by a Los Angeles-based company that sells rare prizes and trophies. The minimum bid was $325,000. When the auction ended Thursday night, the winning bid was for $633,335. NBC reports a buyer’s premium will push the final price even higher.
“That put the transaction at No. 4 on the list of 10 Nobel Prize sales over the past 30 years, said Sam Heller, a spokesman for Nate D. Sanders Auctions. The reserve price had been set at $325,000, and six bids were received during a back-and-forth session that went almost two hours into overtime.” – NBC News
Lederman is a renowned physicist. He moved to eastern Idaho full time after retiring from a lab near Chicago. His wife, Ellen, told KBSXthis week the couple opted sell the medal to pay for her husband’s future medical care. Leon Lederman is 92 and has dementia.