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But then how would we know the value of a Nobel prize? I'm sure the University of Chicago economists would tell us that you can't have an efficient market for Nobel medals without such transactions.

They probably weren't even aware of his situation when this happened.

Yeah, you're probably right...

The endowment is over $7.5 billion, so it would be .01% https://annualreport.uchicago.edu/page/endowment

My thoughts exactly. Or at the very least, help fundraising with current and former university students. I am sure a lot of them would have had contributed.

Lederman began suffering memory loss in 2011, as the article mentions. Four years later, it is unlikely that he had the energy and capability to launch a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign.

Professors aren't really known for their lack of hubris, either... begging students/faculty for money might have seemed to him an activity that would rob him of whatever dignity he had left. In other words, I am not shocked a renowned Nobel Prize-winning physicist refused to ask for help.