The Nobel Peace Prize is inseparable from the person who won it, the Nobel Committee said today, a day after this year's winner gave her medal to US President Donald Trump.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Mr Trump yesterday in a bid to win over the US president.
"He deserves it," she said.
"And it was a very emotional moment, I decided to present the Nobel Peace Prize medal on behalf of the people of Venezuela."
But the Nobel Committee's statement today from Oslo said: "Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize."
"Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else's possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize," it added.
In addition to the gold medal, Ms Machado's award also consisted of a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns (€1m).
The committee said it would make no comment "on Peace Prize laureates or the political processes that they are engaged in".
There were no restrictions on what laureates did with the medal, diploma and money they received as part of the prize, it added.
It listed several instances in which laureates had sold or given away their medals.
Ms Machado won hers for "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy", according to the award citation.
Mr Trump had campaigned hard to win last year's Nobel Peace Prize for what he says are his efforts to stop eight wars.
Instead it went to Ms Machado, who appeared in Oslo last month to collect her prize - following a daring escape from Venezuela by boat. She subsequently dedicated it to Mr Trump.
The White House posted a photo of Mr Trump and Ms Machado with the president holding up a large, gold-coloured frame displaying the medal yesterday, and a White House official confirmed that the president intends to keep it.
Ms Machado has previously insisted she will be elected president "when the right time comes" despite the US sidelining her after overthrowing Nicolas Maduro.
Mr Trump has backed Mr Maduro's former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as interim leader of the oil-rich country following the 3 January US military operation to seize Mr Maduro.
