After paying $4.8 million for Jim Watson’s Nobel Prize medal, buyer gives it back to him

December 9, 2014 • 1:15 pm

As the Independent reports, the person who bought J. D. Watson’s auctioned-off Nobel Prize medal, and paid $4.8 million for it ($4.1 million plus buyer’s commission), was Alisher Usmanov, the owner of the Arsenal football club, described as “the richest man in Russia.” (What is a Russian doing owning Arsenal?) From the paper:

Usmanov said today that he would give him back the medal as well as giving him the cash for it.

Usmanov said that he had been motivated to buy and return the medal to avoid Watson having to sell it. He values Watson’s work because of his contribution to cancer research, the disease from which Usmanov’s father died, he said.

. . .“In my opinion, a situation in which an outstanding scientist has to sell a medal recognising his achievements is unacceptable,” Usmanov said. “James Watson is one of the greatest biologists in the history of mankind and his award for the discovery of DNA structure must belong to him.

So, in effect, Usmanov has simply handed a gift of $4.1 million to Watson. Let us hope that Watson will now donate the medal to a museum, as he’s got the money he wanted and the medal is far better off on display than in private hands.

It’s not clear what Watson intended to do with the money: he was variously described as earmarking it for research institutions and colleges (including my university), but also as intending to keep it for himself.

There’s a video showing the medal at the Independent site.

h/t: Colin

47 thoughts on “After paying $4.8 million for Jim Watson’s Nobel Prize medal, buyer gives it back to him”

    1. Not clear. I don’t think Watson would have to pay income tax, but Alisher Usmanov (or Watson) would have to pay sales tax to Watson’s state. It’s just like when you sell a car. In the US, Usmanov would have to pay a gift tax for giving the medal back, but he’s operating under Russian tax code.

        1. I met a Russian oligarch once in the Seychelles. He was footing the bill for a very expensive fishing trip for six of his friends. It was a bummer for me and my English partner. We were the only other clients on the island. None of the Russians except the oligarch spoke English, and they were, to put it bluntly, crude. After dinner I had long, drunken conversations with him about politics and fishing. He was very keen on fishing and owned a good chunk of prime Atlantic Salmon water on the Kola Peninsula.

  4. (What is a Russian doing owning Arsenal?)

    Oil money is very much a part of modern european football.

      1. Roman Abramovich has owned Chelsea for years and I guess the other oligarchs need to keep up with the Joneses. Americans and Arab sheiks are in the Premier League as well.

        1. As it turns out, Usmanov is only part owner of Arsenal. The majority owner is Stan Kroenke who owns or has owned the Colorado Rapids, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and the St. Louis Rams, to name the bigger teams.

          1. While Usmanov owns many shares of Arsenal, he isn’t even on the Board. There has been a lot of fan pushback on “foreign” ownership, but the Premier League is a fantastic investment right now.

            Still, I never thought I would get some Arsenal news from my favorite evolution website!

    2. Exactly what does a sports team owner own? It’s not like owning one or more race horses, eh? (Or, in reality, is it?)

      1. I dunno, but there’s been a lot of clubs with financial trouble and I think it’s pretty hard to make a profit from it.

        I guess they own the bragging rights at billionaire summer camp. 🙂

      2. The main thing that they own is the brand. The value of sales of branded merchandise is an eye-wateringly high number. Totally incomprehensible how it happens, but it’s certainly true. If I watch the telly in the morning (a rarity; normally I’ll go through existing recordings rather than watch daytime trash TV) there’s almost always a programme about Trading Standards Officers policing counterfeit goods, and practically every day they show footage of a raid on a clothing store or market stall loaded with counterfeited Manchester Something or Liverton Humbugs football tops.
        It’s also behind the annual change of team colours, which I guess is about brainwashing kids into pestering parents for this year’s fashion. All part of training them to be good little consumers. It’s a multi-billion pound per annum industry.

  5. Well, that was nice. Hopefully the medal finds its way to a museum and the money to an appropriate cause. Can’t blame Watson for keeping some of it, assuming he’s having money problems.

  6. Reaching for a joke here about why I should get millions, but failed, so…

    subscribing.

  7. Alisher Usmanov owns only the second largest share in Arsenal, biggest (and, I seem to remember, majority) owner is an American, Stan Kroenke…

  10. What is a Russian doing owning Arsenal?

    I believe that a Russian also owns the Brooklyn entry in the National
    Basketball Association.

    1. Mansoor bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan owns Manchester City Football Club. Before long they may own us.

    1. Yeah, and they were puzzled that he would sell it for money even though he did not need the money personally. There was, by selective editing, no mention that the plan all along was to give large donations to the institutions that were important to him.

      2. IMO, the guy’s just unpleasant all around. Even taken just as a biologist, he was at the vanguard of the movement for technique over understanding. If he had his way–and he largely has although certainly not through his efforts alone!–we’d have no taxonomists, no ecologists, no botanists, no zoologists, only a token evolutionary biologist or two to put a little gloss of meaning, every now and then, onto the piles of “Oh, look, I found a molecule!” papers.

        Yes, I’m kind of bitter. I got a PhD in a dead field.

          1. I like the idea of multiple autobiographies to be read in parallel, rather than sequence. More people should do it that way.

    3. If it is true that Watson said the things that he is alleged to have said, then that article does not seem overly odious. The things he is alleged to have said are certainly odious.

      1. I seem to recall The Sunday Times breaking this story after an interview some years ago. One question would be did he mean to be racist, or did he think he was being factual & was just rubbish in his analysis? Maybe his was just a prejudice of his age & upbringing?

  15. Ownership of Arsenal is with Arsenal Holdings plc.
    “As of 1 July 2011, the majority shareholder in the club is the American Stan Kroenke, who holds 66.64% of the parent company. His rival, the Russian-Uzbek Alisher Usmanov, owns 29.11%”

    Kroenke owns lots of US sports teams like St. Louis Rams…

    2. Yes, those numbers are correct. Sadly, Usmanov has no say in the running of the club (I’m an Arsenal fan). His 29% doesn’t even get him a seat on the board.

      1. Come on the Arsenal!
        Amazing Ramsey goal last night…

        *wonders what Jerry’s team is and hopes it’s not Spurs*

  16. What does Jerry think of Watson’s controversial claims, as cited in the Telegraph article?

    “He has supported the selective abortion of gay children, endorsed the view that dark-skinned people have higher sex drives and was forced to retire as chancellor of a laboratory after being quoted saying that Africans are less intelligent than westerners”

    1. I think we can be pretty confident about what Jerry thinks of statements like that without him having to spell it out.

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