The 1962 prize was awarded to Watson, Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, with each receiving a gold medal.
The medal is the first Nobel Prize to be put on sale by a living recipient.
Watson recently said he was selling the medal because he had been ostracized by the scientific community after remarks he made about race in a 2007 Sunday Times interview. In an interview with the Financial Times, Watson said he had been made to feel like an "unperson" since the interview seven years ago in which he linked race to intelligence.
Watson, 86, said he planned to donate part of the proceeds to charities and to support scientific research.
Francis Crick's Nobel medal sold for $2.2 million last year. He died in 2004.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
