Many of the personal and academic items belonging to celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking, including a used wheelchair and a signed 1965 thesis, fetched about 1.8 million US dollars in an auction in London on November 8, according to auctioneer Christie's. /VCG Photo

The red wheelchair was sold at the auction for about 390,000 dollars – 15 times over what expected. It was used by Dr. Hawking, who passed away in March at the age of 76, during the late 1980s and early ’90s. Later, he stopped using it when he could no longer steer it with his hands due to motor neuron disease. /VCG Photo

A bidder also spent more than 760,000 dollars – more than double the expected price – to secure Dr. Hawking’s signed 1965 Cambridge University Ph.D. thesis, “Properties of Expanding Universes,” about the origins of time and space. /VCG Photo

The proceeds of the auction will go to two charities, the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neuron Disease Association, according to CBS. /VCG Photo