LOS ANGELES – The 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Dr. Leon Lederman sold Thursday night for $765,002 at Nate D. Sanders Auctions.
It was the fourth highest total ever paid for a Nobel Prize at auction, according to Sanders Auctions.
The auction marked only the second time a Nobel Prize was sold by a living Nobel laureate, Sanders Auctions said, and was only the 10th Nobel Prize to go under the hammer.
Lederman, 92, said it's been sitting on a shelf for decades and selling it seemed like a logical thing to do.
Lederman won the Nobel Prize in physics with two other scientists for discovering a subatomic particle called the muon neutrino. He used the prize money to buy a cabin near Driggs, Idaho, as a vacation retreat.
After retiring from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., in June 2012, Lederman moved to Idaho full time.
The Nobel Prize is made of 18kt gold and is plated in 24k gold, as are all Nobel Prize medals awarded after 1980.
