![Gold tobacco box “The Egg of Columbus” with enamel painting on the lid.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/tabakdose-ei-des-kolumbus-titel-300x225.jpg)
Columbus' egg
A tobacco box with a tale or two to tell – or, how a gift from King Frederick I of Württemberg to Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg fell prey to a notorious art thief 200 years later.
![Portrait of Christopher Columbus by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1483-1561).](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/portrat-des-christoph-kolumbus-von-ridolfo-ghirlandaio-300x300.jpg)
You could have done it, but I did it!
![“Columbus Breaking the Egg” by Thomas Robson](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/columbus-breaking-the-egg-von-thomas-robson-300x225.jpg)
The “egg of Columbus” as a royal gift
![King Frederick I of Württemberg in coronation robes and armour.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/konig-friedrich-i-von-wurttemberg-225x300.jpg)
![The Bernese agronomist, educationalist and economist Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/padagoge-und-agronom-philipp-emanuel-von-fellenberg-225x300.jpg)
![Gold tobacco box “The Egg of Columbus” with enamel painting on the lid.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/tabakdose-ei-des-kolumbus-300x223.jpg)
The “egg of Columbus” as stolen goods
![Both an art lover and a kleptomaniac: Stéphane Breitwieser appears at a court hearing in Strasbourg in January 2005.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/stephane-breitwieser-erscheint-zu-seiner-gerichtsverhandlung-in-strassburg-im-januar-2005-300x232.jpg)
![To cover her son’s tracks, after his arrest Breitwieser’s mother destroyed and disposed of dozens of paintings and drawings in the trash](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/rhein-rhone-kanal-300x197.jpg)
Columbus’ rotten egg
![Woodcut to illustrate Columbus’ first account of his travels, Epistola de insulis nuper inventis, 1493](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/epistola-de-insulis-nuper-inventis-214x300.jpg)