The motorized chair, used by Hawking after he was paralyzed with motor neuron disease, raised 296,750 pounds($393,000) in a Christie's online auction. Proceeds from the chair's sale will go to two charities, the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Hawking's 1965 Cambridge University thesis, 'Properties of Expanding Universes,' sold for 584,750 pounds, more than three times its pre-sale estimate, in the online auction.