Retired physicist's Nobel Prize fetches $756K at auction

Retired Nobel Prize winner Dr. Leon M Lederman's Nobel Prize fetched him $765,002 at an auction recently.

The 92-year-old experimental physicist, who now suffers from dementia, had put up his 1988 gold medal for sale due to piled up medical bills, News.com.au has reported.

The online auction conducted by Nate D. Sanders Auctions went into overtime until a final bid went unchallenged for 30 minutes, and his wife, Ellen Lederman, expressed that she was shocked for it was just something that was sitting in their cabinet for 20 years. They would let kids play with it and have their picture taken, she added.

Ellen, 67, said that she wished it could be different, but it was difficult for them due to Lederman's memory loss.

Lederman had won the Nobel Prize in physics with two other scientists for discovering a subatomic particle called the muon neutrino, and had used the prize money to buy a log cabin near Driggs in eastern Idaho as a vacation retreat.

Nate D. Sanders Auctions said that the medal is the fourth-highest ever paid among the 10 Nobel Prizes that have been sold at auction, and only the second to be put up for auction by a living Nobel Prize winner.

The buyer has chosen to remain anonymous.