Late physicist Stephen Hawking’s wheelchair, thesis auction for over $1mn

Personal items of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, including his personalized wheelchair, doctoral thesis and medals, have been auctioned for over a million dollars.

The late physicist's personal items were put up for auction by an online event run by British auction house Christie’s and dubbed the ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ sale. Hawking’s items all combined sold for about $1,306,275 at the auction.

As per CNET, Hawking’s motorized wheelchair was sold for around $387,000, whereas a copy of his thesis titled ‘Properties of Expanding Universes’, which was published in 1966 by Cambridge University and detailed theories on birth and expansion of the universe and gravitational radiation, gathered roughly $765,000, four times its expected price.

Stephen Hawking’s wheelchair and voice to be preserved forever

Hawking’s daughter Lucy said that the sale gave ‘admirers of his work the chance to acquire a memento of our father’s extraordinary life in the shape of a small selection of evocative and fascinating items’.

In total, the auction included 52 lots and raised around $2.35 million. Along with inclusion of Hawking’s personal belongings, the auction also included belongings linked to scientists including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, wrote The Guardian.

Hawking passed away at the age of 76 back on March 14, 2018 after suffering from a motor neurone disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) for over 55 years.

Apart from Hawking, one of Newton’s manuscripts sold for around $130,000, a set of seven awards, including Einstein’s award for achievement in natural sciences sold for about $387,000, a letter written by Darwin sold for $65,230, and one of Einstein’s manuscripts gathered $42,399.

Proceedings of the auction raised by wheelchair will go to the Stephen Hawking Foundation that assists research into cosmology and astrophysics, and to the Motor Neurone Disease Association that supports research and campaigns for those diagnosed with the disease.