Have any Nobel Peace Prize winners declined the monetary prize and why?
Executive summary
Only two Nobel laureates are widely reported to have refused a Nobel Prize: Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the 1964 Literature Prize) and North Vietnamese negotiator Lê Đức Thọ (declined the 1973 Peace Prize), the latter saying “peace has not yet been established” (Britannica; NPR) [1] [2]. The Nobel cash award in 2025 is reported as 11 million Swedish kronor (about US$1–1.2 million) per prize; prizes split between multiple laureates divide that sum (Britannica; Marca) [1] [3].
1. Two voluntary refusals — the canonical cases
Journalistic histories of the Nobel Prizes report only two voluntary refusals of a Nobel Prize. Jean‑Paul Sartre refused the 1964 Literature Prize because he rejected all official honours; Lê Đức Thọ declined the 1973 Peace Prize (shared with Henry Kissinger) on the grounds that “peace has not yet been established” in Vietnam (Britannica; NPR) [1] [2]. These two cases are the standard examples cited by encyclopedias and news outlets when discussing laureates who turned down the award [1] [2].
2. Distinction between voluntary refusal and involuntary non‑receipt
Sources make a clear distinction between voluntary refusals and situations where laureates did not physically receive a medal or money because of external constraints. Britannica notes that besides the two voluntary refusals, several laureates have “involuntarily declined” or been unable to accept due to imprisonment, exile, or death — contexts distinct from an explicit refusal [1]. Available sources do not enumerate every involuntary case in this dataset; they focus on the two deliberate refusals [1].
3. Why people refuse: political principle and strategy
The publicly stated motives for refusals are political or principled. Sartre’s rejection followed his long-standing intellectual stance against official honours and institutions; Lê Đức Thọ framed his refusal as a judgment that the conditions for durable peace did not exist (Britannica; NPR) [1] [2]. These statements signal that refusals often function as political messages rather than personal rejections of recognition or money [1] [2].
4. Money and symbolism: the prize’s monetary value
The monetary component of the Nobel Prize is significant but secondary in most refusal narratives. Reporting notes the 2025 prize amount as 11 million Swedish kronor (roughly US$1–1.2 million) per award; when multiple people share a prize, the amount is divided (Britannica; Marca) [1] [3]. In the canonical refusals, available coverage emphasizes principle and political context rather than money as the reason for declining [1] [2].
5. Recent context — do new refusals appear in 2025 reporting?
2025 coverage of Nobel laureates (including the 2025 Peace Prize to María Corina Machado) centers on attendance, controversy, and political reactions, not on any new voluntary refusals of the prize itself (NobelPrize.org; The Guardian; TIME) [4] [5] [6]. News reports describe protests, diplomatic reactions and some laureates missing ceremonies, but available sources do not report anyone in 2025 explicitly declining the award money or the prize outright [5] [7] [4].
6. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas in sources
Encyclopedic sources (Britannica) frame refusals as historical facts emphasizing principle; news outlets (NPR, The Guardian, TIME) situate refusals and controversies in political context and often highlight critics’ views. For example, reporting on the 2025 Peace Prize highlights protests and political criticism around a laureate without claiming a refusal occurred [5] [7] [6]. Readers should note that reportage around peace prizes is often politically charged and that emphasis — whether on principle, criticism, or ceremony — reflects editorial choices [5] [7].
7. Limitations and what sources do not say
Available sources in this set do not provide a comprehensive list of every instance of involuntary non‑receipt (such as imprisonment or death) nor do they cover any private financial decisions by laureates beyond the two famous refusals; they also do not indicate any 2025 laureate formally refusing the monetary award [1] [4]. If you want a definitive, exhaustive list or legal details about how the Nobel Foundation handles rejected monetary awards, those specifics are not found in the current reporting and would require direct Nobel Foundation documentation or archival research beyond these sources (not found in current reporting).
Sources: Britannica (history and refusals, prize amount context) [1]; NPR (Lê Đức Thọ refusal context) [2]; NobelPrize.org (2025 laureates summary) [4]; The Guardian, TIME, Marca (2025 prize reporting, prize amount, controversies) [5] [7] [6] [3].