However, he could not leave Bologna.

On the 18th of February 1508 he writes to Buonarroto that he is kicking his heels, having received orders from the Pope to stay until the bronze was placed.

Three days later--that is, upon the 21st of February--the Pope's portrait was hoisted to its pedestal above the great central door of S.Petronio.
It remained there rather less than three years.

When the Papal Legate fled from Bologna in 1511, and the party of the Bentivogli gained the upper hand, they threw the mighty mass of sculptured bronze, which had cost its maker so much trouble, to the ground.

That happened on the 30th of December.