A letter arrived for me several days ago. Imagine my surprise when upon opening, I discovered that I had won the first prize in the euro lottery. At first i was skeptical of such a letter, having been involved in a tragic scratch card scam as a kid (i never did receive my mario badge), but as i read on i found all of these concerns gentley abated by the printed words of the Vice President, Antonio Gomez. His letter assured me that i had indeed won the grand total of €5,200,000 and that it could be credited to me as soon as i wished. Well theres a spot of luck, thought I, and what a nice man this Mr Gomez is, going out of his way to make sure that I knew of my lucky win. I had hardly time to think about what I would do my newly acquired fortune when on opening a second letter i discovered, to my surprise, that i had won first prize in the euro lottery... again.

I declare this fraudulent letter (sent to me twice) as a true piece of art. There has been an obviously large amount of time and skill put into making it seem convincing. On the one hand it stands as a work dedicated to our nature of greed, pulling at our desires, but on a more deep level i feel it gives us an important gift. The gift of the exploration of the human condition, the experience that we are all capable of harbouring faint glimmers of hope, no matter how many odds stand in our way, we can still believe. Oh and it also teaches me my lucky numbers are: 9, 22, 37, 39, 41, 49, 19 and 2.

Having now spent a lot of time with it, I can now begin to also appreciate the finer details found on closer inspection. Such as the bizarre unidentified picture in the bottom right hand corner, or the beautifully crafted official looking stamp over the vice presidents name, which turns the last o in his signature into a smiley face with a half grin.

Upon further reading it also declares America, Asia, Africa, Canada and New Zealand all a part of Europe, go figure. Oh and by the way, if anyone does want to claim my winnings of €5,200,000 it is apparently still possible to do so until August 31st, and please, say "Hi" to Gomez for me.