Tomas Georgeson really wants art patrons to visit the Milton Keynes Gallery in Buckinghamshire. The U.K. artist is so keen on boosting the number of gallery visitors that he's even put his own money on the line -- £8,000 (roughly $12,600) of it to be exact.
Georgeson hid a blank check somewhere in the gallery Tuesday and took out an advertisment in a local newspaper to spread the word, the Telegraph reports.
While finding the blank check will be no easy feat -- the gallery's staff has already conducted a careful search of the premises with no luck -- Georgeson said he is prepared to part with the money.
"It won't bounce if somebody finds the check and cashes it," Georgeson told the Telegraph. "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."
Georgeson, who previously worked as a volunteer at the space, said he wrote out a check for nearly all his money without the gallery's knowledge as a show of support.
Though he is encouraging people to visit the gallery and search for the money, Georgeson told MK News that nothing should be disturbed, since the check is not hidden around any artwork on display.
Katharine Sorensen, the gallery's communications director, even searched for the check herself, but was unable to find it.
“There’s nothing obvious,” Sorensen told MK News. “This is not a gallery hoax, and we can’t say if it’s a hoax on the part of the artist.”
Georgeson isn't the only one to pull a stunt like this in an attempt to bring in more patrons of the arts.
The Leopold Museum in Vienna announced this week that it will welcome nude exhibitionists to view an after-hours showing of its "Naked Men" exhibit, which is set to run until Mar. 4, according to Reuters. The exhibit itself, along with another special exposition in honor of painter Gustav Klimt, helped raise the museum's visitor numbers by 17 percent last year.
Georgeson plans to remove the check on March 1, if it is not found beforehand.
Watch Heart Radio reporter Amy Woodfield search for the blank check at the gallery in the video above.