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The wheelchair of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking just sold at an auction for nearly $400,000.
What happened: According to Fortune, the motorized wheelchair, which Hawking used in the 1980s and 1990s, was expected to sell for somewhere between $10,000 to 15,000. It sold for a final price of almost $392,000.
- Quartz reported that the proceeds from the sale of the wheelchair will be donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association and the Stephen Hawking Foundation.
Several other items that belonged to Hawking were also sold during the auction.
- According to the Associated Press, Hawking’s 1965 Cambridge University thesis, “Properties of Expanding Universes,” sold for 584,750 pounds (nearly $767,000 in U.S currency), over three times the presale estimate.
- A collection of Hawking’s medals and awards sold for nearly $392,000, per Fortune.
- A bomber jacket once owned by Hawking sold for about $51,855.
- Hawking’s production script from a 2010 episode of “The Simpsons” in which he appeared sold for over $8,100.
- The Guardian reported that other items in the auction included personal copies of the British physicist’s papers, such as a copy of his 1974 article “Black Hole Explosions?,” in which he predicted that black holes would release blackbody radiation, known as Hawking Radiation.
- A copy of his best-selling “A Brief History of Time,” signed with a thumbprint, sold for over $89,000.
Other items sold in the online auction were linked to Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. According to
The Guardian
, the auction brought in a total of over $2.3 million.
Sydney Chapman, Deseret News
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