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 KBSX this week the couple opted sell the medal to pay for her husband’s future medical care. Leon Lederman is 92 and has dementia.