During June 2003 New York artist Patrick Killoran deliberately set out to lose 250 identical wallets in Birmingham’s city centre. Each had precisely the same contents, including business cards, receipts, health certificate, ID card, hand written notes and a condom, to create a portrait of a Mr Thomas Swallow, a fictional character from a non-existent country, Tierra del Mar.

As Killoran explained, ‘The wallets belong to a person from a utopian place. They are full of references to the possibilities of perfect worlds, from Thomas More to Walt Disney.’ Their meaning was open-ended, potentially the source of urban mythology through the artistís covert activity.

The wallets were abandoned in a variety of public places including shops, telephone boxes and bus stops. Their fate was completely undetermined. Some wallets were kept, others were handed in to lost property offices, many may still remain undiscovered. Some were brought to the attention of the Birmingham Police, resulting in the project being stopped.