DNA scientist James Watson has made history once again, this time, for selling his Nobel Prize medal to a private collector for a record breaking price of $4.7 million. This is said to be the highest amount ever paid for a Nobel medal. In fact, the medal fetched a price, that surpassed that of even its twin; the medal of Francis Crick, who was the co-recipient of the same award, was sold by his family in 2013 for $2.27 million. Watson's medal was put up for auction at the Christie's auction house and was purchased by an anonymous collector. The sale went down in history, recording the first time that a living recipient of the Nobel Prize sold his medal.

James Watson was awarded the Nobel medal along with his colleagues Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins in 1962, for discovering the double helix structure of the DNA, which paved the way to understanding the very formation of an organism in the cellular level. The discovery is credited to have created the foundation for modern-day science and medicine.

While Francis Crick lead a fairly private life, Watson, on the other hand, is a known firebrand in the scientific community. In 2007, Watson was suspended from his position as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, after he gave a very public interview, in which he provocatively linked race to intelligence. His remarks were considered to be extremely prejudiced and inflammatory. It is after this that Watson found himself almost ostracised from the scientific community. Watson admitted to selling his medal due to financial constraints caused after his disastrous interview in 2007, after which, he said, he was made out to be an"unperson".

In addition to the medal, Watson also auctioned off his Nobel acceptance speech and lecture notes which sold for an additional $365,000 and $245,000, respectively. The now 86-year-old scientist expressed his desire to aid in further research as well as his remorse for his comments seven years earlier. And in a surprisingly humble revelation, Watson disclosed that he intends to donate some of proceeds to the Cold Spring lab in New York as well as a few of his other favoured charities.