The Norwegian Nobel Committee published a statement where it emphatically reminded that the Nobel Peace Prize is a personal and non-transferable recognition, after the Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado presented the award to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, during an event at the White House.
According to the text published by the Nobel Foundation, one of its main missions is to “safeguard the dignity of the Nobel Prizes and their proper administration.”
The institution emphasized that the awards "cannot, even symbolically, be transferred or distributed," reaffirming that the honor remains forever linked to the awarded individual.
The statement comes after Machado's gesture, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2025 for her role in Venezuela's democratic transition following the fall of Nicolás Maduro.
At the ceremony in Washington, the Venezuelan leader presented her medal to Trump as a token of gratitude for the operation that led to the capture of the former chavista president and his wife, Cilia Flores, earlier this year.
The Committee also reiterated that it does not comment on the subsequent actions of the awardees, as its responsibility is limited to evaluating their merits up to the point of the award's granting.
"The award and the laureate are inseparable. Although the medal, the diploma, or the money may change hands, the recognition always belongs to the one designated as the winner," the text states.
As of the time this note was written, neither María Corina Machado nor Donald Trump have provided statements on whether the American president will return the medal to the opposition leader.
However, the political gesture has sparked intense debate in diplomatic and academic circles, while Republican lawmakers like María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart publicly highlighted the delivery as a symbol of Trump's leadership in policy towards Venezuela.
The statement from the Nobel Foundation concludes by reminding that the medals, made of 18-carat gold and weighing 196 grams, are physical symbols of recognition, but do not represent ownership of the prize or its historical title.
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