A motorised wheelchair used by the late British physicist Stephen Hawking has sold at auction for almost 300,000 UK pounds.

　　Documents and files from Stephen Hawking, as well as personal and academic possessions, have gone under the hammer at Christies in London. A wheelchair used by Stephen Hawking has sold at auction for almost 300,000 pounds ($393,000), while a copy of the scientist's doctoral thesis fetched almost 585,000 pounds ($767,000). The motorized chair, used by the physicist after he was paralyzed with motor neuron disease, sold for 296,750 pounds in an online auction on Thursday Nov. 8, 2018. [Photo: IC]

　　At the same time, his dissertation "Properties of expanding universes" from 1965 has sold for nearly 600,000 pounds at Christies.

　　The 9-day online event is designed to raise money for the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

　　The auction has also featured sale of various pieces of Hawking's belongings, including essays, medals, awards and a copy of his book a "Brief History of Time" signed with a thumbprint, alongside letters and manuscripts of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.

　　Famed for his work in trying to better understand the origins of the universe, Hawking died in March at the age of 76 after spending most of his life confined to a wheelchair with motor neurone disease.