2. Da Vinci’s Gran Cavallo

Since he was known to quickly lose interest and move onto other projects, Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have left behind quite a few unfinished works of art. His most famous unfinished masterpiece, however, was left incomplete due to circumstances outside his control. In the fifteenth century, Da Vinci was commissioned by the Duke Of Milan to build a statue of a horse to honor his father. Da Vinci spent twelve years working on the statue, and in 1492 he unveiled the 23-foot tall clay model of his “Gran Cavallo,” which was praised by many as one of the most beautiful works of art ever created. But before the mold of the horse could be cast in bronze, war broke out between France and Italy. The Duke then decided to donate the 200,000 pounds of metal intended for the horse to the military, which used it to build cannons. Da Vinci’s massive horse statue was never completed, and it is said that the invading French archers later used his clay horse model for target practice.