[Cannot edit the parent, sorry] There is a somewhat embarrassing (to my taste) discussion here http://gowers.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/pierre-deligne-wins-the-2

[Cannot edit the parent, sorry] There is a somewhat embarrassing (to my taste) discussion here http://gowers.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/pierre-deligne-wins-the-2013-abel-prize/ http://gowers.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/pierre-deligne-wins-t... in which they claim that it is policy of the Abel Foundation not to bestow the prize on people who would not attend the ceremony. This strikes me as surprsing at the very least but you can never tell with foundations. I am thinking in three centuries' time people will say: "Of course, they gave Grothendieck one of the first Abel prizes" and receiving a sorry answer "well, I say, no... it was a question of policy". Kings are not kings if they do not survive someone rejecting their bounties.