Dmitry Muratov, the co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and the editor of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, auctioned off his Nobel medal for a record $103.5 million to aid children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

All proceeds from the auction, which coincided with World Refugee Day on Monday, will benefit UNICEF's humanitarian response for Ukraine's displaced children, according to Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale in New York.

Muratov's Novaya Gazeta newspaper, fiercely critical of President Vladimir Putin and his government, suspended operations in Russia in March after warnings from the state over its coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. 

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Vladimir Putin's government has introduced laws which forbid reporting that conflicts with the official narrative around the situation in Ukraine. It says the rules are necessary to prevent misinformation but almost all independent media and many foreign outlets have chosen to close down rather than risk falling foul of the regulations. 

According to U.S. media reports, the auction of Muratov's prize shattered the record for any Nobel medal that has been auctioned off, with reports saying that the previous highest sale fetched just under $5 million.

'Unlike any other auction offering'

"This award is unlike any other auction offering to present," Heritage Auctions said in a statement before the sale.

"Mr. Muratov, with the full support of his staff at Novaya Gazeta, is allowing us to auction his medal not as a collectible but as an event that he hopes will positively impact the lives of millions of Ukrainian refugees."

Muratov, who co-founded Novaya Gazeta in 1991, won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Maria Ressa of the Philippines for what the Nobel Prize committee said were "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."

Muratov, who pledged to donate about $500,000 of that prize money to charities, dedicated his prize to the six Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been murdered since 2000.

That list included the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of Russia's war in Chechnya, who was killed in 2006 in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building.