Art gallery sees visitor boost as artist hides £8,000 blank cheque inside
Artist, Tomas Georgeson, has left a bank cheque for £8,000 in Milton Keynes Gallery in an attempt to boost the number of its visitors.
In an effort to encourage locals to go to the gallery and hunt for the cheque, Georgeson has placed adverts with papers, highlighting the PR stunt. The adverts read: “A blank cheque for £8,000 has been hidden somewhere in the public spaces of Milton Keynes Gallery. It will be collected on 1 March 2013 if unclaimed.”
Georgeson told the Telegraph that he wanted to “get people through the door and change the mood of the place.”
He added the £8,000 represents nearly all the money he has. “It won’t bounce if somebody finds the cheque and cashes it. I’m prepared to live with the consequences of that happening, and I could only be prepared if I thought it would really do some good” he said.
A press representative from the gallery said they and several colleagues, who have not been told the location of the cheque, “have made a careful search of the gallery’s public spaces and found no trace of a blank cheque for £8,000.”