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If the medal is sold, Prof Watson said he would use some of the proceeds to make donations to the “institutions that have looked after me”, such as the University of Chicago, where he was awarded his undergraduate degree, and Clare College, Cambridge.

He said his income had plummeted following his controversial remarks on race, which forced him to retire from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York. He still holds the position of chancellor emeritus there.

“Because I was an “unperson” I was fired from the boards of companies, so I have no income, apart from my academic income,” he said. He added: “I really would love to own a Hockney.”

Francis Wahlgren, the auctioneer who is handling the sale of the medal, said he was confident it would attain the reserve price. He said demand for memorabilia associated with genetic discovery had “exploded” in recent years as the promise of biotechnology became apparent.

Mr. Wahlgren said he did not expect the controversy surrounding Watson’s comments to deter potential buyers.

“I think the guy is the greatest living scientist. There are a lot of personalities in history we’d find fault with, but their discoveries transcend human foibles,” he said.

Because I was an “unperson” I was fired from the boards of companies, so I have no income, apart from my academic income

Watson, who insisted he was “not a racist in a conventional way”, said it had been “stupid” of him to not realize that his comments regarding the intelligence of African people would end up in an article.

“I apologize … [the journalist] somehow wrote that I worried about the people in Africa because of their low IQ, and you’re not supposed to say that.” In 2007, the Sunday Times ran an interview with Prof Watson in which he said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says ‘not really.'”

He told the newspaper people wanted to believe that everyone was born with equal intelligence but that those “who have to deal with black employees find this not true”.

Prof Watson said: “I’ve had a unique life that’s allowed me to do things. I was set back. It was stupid on my part.

“All you can do is nothing, except hope that people actually know what you are,” he added.