Claude Monet (untitled works) / knife, paintbrush

(In 1908, painter Claude Monet was set to present a new series of paintings. The works, three years in the making, had been lauded by critics after an advance viewing, and ads for the exhibition, set for May of that year, had been published in the press. Immediately prior to their installation, however, the 68-year-old Monet decided the paintings weren’t worthy of display. Amid protests from onlookers, Monet blotted out the images with paint before slicing the canvases repeatedly with a knife. The works were destroyed and the exhibition was canceled.)