Swedish industrialist Nobel’s will establishing prestigious prizes displayed for first time
Posted Mar 13, 2015 08:35:34 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
COPENHAGEN – Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel’s last will, which laid the foundation for the prestigious prizes bearing his name, has been put on public display for the first time.
The handwritten document from 1895 is shown at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm as part of the “Legacy” exhibition that opened Friday.
Nobel wrote that part of his fortune should be used to endow prizes in physics, chemistry, literature and peace to people who “have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.” The Swede, who invented dynamite, gave only vague instructions on how to select winners.
In 1968, Sweden’s central bank added the economics award that carries the same prize money — 8 million kronor ($930,000). All prizes are always handed out on Dec. 10, the date that Nobel died in 1896.
