Details

In 1985, William Esser III was awarded a US patent for the dissection of an ellipsoid to a heart-shaped object. Ernst Lurker, a sculptor, discovered a very similar dissection around the same time.

Reference

[1] G. N. Frederickson, Hinged Dissections: Swinging & Twisting, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002 pp. 6–7. www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/gnf/book2.html.