Stephen Hawking’s motorised wheelchair sells for more than half a million dollars at auction – World News

Posted

November 09, 2018 18:49:07

A red motorised wheelchair once used by Stephen Hawking has sold for more than $500,000 at a charity auction in London.

Items belonging to the late physicist and repeat guest star on The Simpsons went under the hammer at a sale held by Christie’s Auction House on Thursday.

Professor Hawking, who lived with motor neuron disease, was confined to a wheelchair for much of his career, requiring an electronic voice synthesiser to communicate. He died in March, 2018.

A wheelchair he used in the late 1980s and early 1990s sold for more than $534,000 at the auction, which was held to raise money for the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neuron Disease Foundation.

He used the wheelchair while he still had the ability to control the movements in his hand, using a joystick to steer himself.

Hawking’s cheeky use of his wheelchair became legendary, having run over Prince Charles’s toes during a meeting in 1977.

He was rumoured to target the toes of anyone who annoyed him, an allegation he addressed with his trademark humour.

“A malicious rumour,” he told author Kitty Ferguson.

“I’ll run over anyone who repeats it.”

Letters and manuscripts belonging to Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein also went up for sale along with a number of Professor Hawking’s essays, medals and awards.

Professor Hawking’s 117-page dissertation Properties of Expanding Universes from 1965 sold for a little more than $1 million, putting it well above the estimate of $270,000.

An invitation to a party for time travellers, hosted by Professor Hawking to prove that time travel did not exist, sold for more than $20,000.

Buyers were also interested in an original script for a 2010 episode of The Simpsons, starring Professor Hawking, which fetched more than $11,000.

Buyers placed their bids online, with the auction proving extremely popular.

“Stephen Hawking was a huge personality worldwide,” head of Christie’s London books and manuscripts department Thomas Venning said.

“He had this amazing ability to connect with people.”

Professor Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at 22, with doctors saying he had just years to live.

However, he went to live until the age of 76, with his death mourned around the world earlier this year.

Despite his disease, Professor Hawking went on to revolutionise theories about back holes and the origins of the universe, penning hugely popular titles such as A Brief History of Time.

His work not only made a mark on the science world, but his sense of humour saw him become a pop culture icon.

Professor Hawking’s last book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, was launched last month.

His daughter, Lucy Hawking, told ABC’s 7.30 Report her father wanted to see unity in humanity.

“I think one thing that really concerned him is the nature of the challenges that the world faces now are global and we are busy dividing ourselves, are ever more fractured, ever more divisive, ever more angry,” she said.

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