DNA biologist James Watson's Nobel medal sells for $4.7 million

NEW YORK: A 1962 Nobel Prize medal won by biologist James Watson for the discovery of the structure of DNA has fetched more than $4.7 million, setting a world record for any Nobel Prize sold at auction.

The medal was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for a record-setting price of $4,757,000, marking the first time a living Nobel laureate sold his gold medal.

The amount fetched by the Nobel Prize medal at Christie's New York auction yesterday surpassed the $2.2 million price that was paid last year for the medal once owned by Watson's late colleague, Francis Crick, 'nbcnews.com' reported.

"The bidding opened at $1.5 million and proceeded swiftly upward as a three-way battle between clients on the phone, until one bidder dropped out at the $3.8 million mark," said Francis Wahlgren, Christie's International Director of Books and Manuscripts.

"The remaining two phone bidders battled on in increments of $100,000, until the final, record-setting price of $4.76 million was achieved," Wahlgren said.

Two of the manuscripts that Watson prepared for the Nobel ceremonies brought in an additional $610,000 during the auction, Christie's said.

In 1962, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.