‘Crown jewel’ of Olympic Games memorabilia put up for sale at auction
An ultra-rare winners’ medal from the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 is set to be sold at auction in Denmark next month.
The silver gong – gold medals were only introduced in 1904 – is believed to be the world’s oldest Olympic medal and has an estimated value of 200,000–300,000 Danish kroner (£23,200–£35,000).
“This is the first time we have ever offered a medal from the very first modern Olympic Games,” said Christian Grundtvig of auction house Bruun Rasmussen.
“Such medals are exceptionally rare, and for collectors of Olympic memorabilia, this is nothing short of a crown jewel.”
The medal is engraved by renowned French artist Jules-Clement Chaplain and depicts the Greek deities Zeus and Nike on one side, with the Acropolis and Parthenon on the other.
It is not known who won the medal at the 1896 Olympics, which featured 241 athletes from 14 nations competing in nine sports and 43 events.
Olympic medal price record set by Owens
The expected price is a fraction of that fetched by the sale of medals belonging to some of history’s most celebrated sportspeople.
The current record was set by the 2013 sale of a gold medal won by US sprinter Jesse Owens at Hitler’s Berlin 1936 Olympics for $1.47m.
This year’s spike in gold prices has also driven up the value of the solid gold medals used from 1904 up to and including the 1912 Games in Stockholm. Since then, “gold” medals have only featured a coating of the precious metal.
Recent Games have seen concerns raised by athletes about the quality of their Olympic medals.
Following Paris 2024, medallists complained of their prizes flaking and rusting, while organisers of the current Milan-Cortina Winter Games have been forced to investigate claims that they are already falling apart.
Online bidding has already begun in the auction of the 1896 Athens Olympic medal, which is set to go under the hammer on 1 March.