A Rare First-Place Medal from the 1896 Olympics Comes to Auction

As the 2026 Winter Olympics command global attention in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, a quieter but historically charged moment is unfolding a few nations to the north. Denmark’s Bruun Rasmussen is bringing to auction a first-place medal from the 1896 Athens Games—the first Olympics of the modern era. Objects from the inaugural Olympics surface rarely, but when they do, they carry a weight that extends far beyond sports memorabilia into cultural and institutional history.

The medal’s importance...