[World-famous biologist James Watson said he is selling the Nobel
Prize medal he won in 1962 for discovering the structure of DNA because he has
been ostracised and needs the money]
By Keith Perry
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James Watson,
co-discoverer of the structure of DNA Photo: Alamy
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James Watson, the world-famous biologist who was shunned by the
scientific community after linking intelligence to race, said he is selling his
Nobel Prize because he is short of money after being made a pariah.
Mr Watson said he is
auctioning the Nobel Prize medal he won in 1962 for discovering the structure
of DNA, because "no-one really wants to admit I exist".
Auctioneer Christie’s
said the gold medal, the first Nobel Prize to be sold by a living recipient,
could fetch as much as $3.5m (£2.23m) when it is auctioned in New York on
Thursday. The reserve price is $2.5m.
Mr Watson told the Financial Times he had become an
“unperson” after he “was outed as believing in IQ” in 2007 and said he would
like to use money from the sale to buy a David Hockney painting.
Mr Watson, who shared the
1962 Nobel Prize for uncovering the double helix structure of DNA, sparked an
outcry in 2007 when he suggested that people of African descent were inherently
less intelligent than white people.
If the medal is sold Mr
Watson said he would use some of the proceeds to make donations to the
“institutions that have looked after me”, such as University of Chicago, where
he was awarded his undergraduate degree, and Clare College, Cambridge.
Mr Watson said his income
had plummeted following his controversial remarks in 2007, which forced him to
retire from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York. He
still holds the position of chancellor emeritus there.
“Because I was an
‘unperson’ I was fired from the boards of companies, so I have no income, apart
from my academic income,” he said.
He would also use some of
the proceeds to buy an artwork, he said. “I really would love to own a
[painting by David] Hockney”.
Francis Wahlgren, the
Christie’s auctioneer who is handling the sale of the medal, said he was
confident it would fetch the $2.5m (£1,598347) reserve. He said demand for
memorabilia associated with genetic discovery had “exploded” in recent years as
the promise of biotechnology became apparent.
“The far-reaching aspects
of their discovery affect everybody and are only being appreciated now,” said
Mr Wahlgreen.
The auctioneer said he
did not expect the controversy surrounding Mr Watson’s comments to deter
potential buyers. “I think the guy is the greatest living scientist. There are
a lot of personalities in history we’d find fault with – but their discoveries
transcend human foibles,” he said Auctions for memorabilia
and art have been setting new records recently as investors look for
inflation-proof investments. Earlier this month Christie’s brought in the
highest-ever total for an auction at its contemporary sale in New York. The
sale grossed $852.9m across 75 lots, including $25.9m for Jeff Koons’s Balloon
Monkey sculpture.
Mr Watson – who insisted
he was “not a racist in a conventional way” – said it had been “stupid” of him
to not realise that his comments on the intelligence of African people would
end up in an article.
“I apologise . . . [the journalist] somehow wrote that I worried
about the people in Africa because of their low IQ – and you’re not supposed to
say that.”
In 2007, the Sunday Times
ran an interview with Dr Watson in which he said he was “inherently gloomy
about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the
fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says
not really”.
He told the newspaper
people wanted to believe that everyone was born with equal intelligence but
that those “who have to deal with black employees find this not true”.
Mr Watson said he hoped
the publicity surrounding the sale of the medal would provide an opportunity
for him to “re-enter public life”. Since the furore in 2007 he has not
delivered any public lectures.
“I’ve had a unique life
that’s allowed me to do things. I was set back. It was stupid on my part. All
you can do is nothing, except hope that people actually know what you are,” he
said.
Prof Watson made his
scientific discovery in 1953 at Cambridge University with Francis Crick. They
were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Maurice Wilkins,
from King's College London, for identifying the elegant double helix in work
that laid the basis for modern molecular biology.
Mr Watson said he one day
wanted his children to auction the handwritten manuscript for his famous book,
The Double Helix. “It will be worth a lot more. We’d have a reserve of at least
$10m,” he said.
