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How to Play

Modern Art

3-5 players 45-45 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Players act as art brokers trading paintings by five artists through auctions. Each turn, you auction one painting from your hand, earning money if others buy it or paying the bank if you purchase it yourself. After each round, paintings gain value based on how many of that artist's works were sold. The richest player after four rounds wins.

Published 1992

Modern Art

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Deal dummy decks
Create 2 dummy draw piles (presumably dealt as in a 4-player game)
2
Deal player hands
Each player receives cards as normal for the variant being played
3
Deal Round 1 cards
Each player receives 7 cards
4
Deal Round 2 cards
Each player receives 2 additional cards
5
Deal Round 3 cards
Each player receives 2 additional cards
6
Deal Round 4 cards
Players receive 0 additional cards
7
Set aside unused cards
4 cards remain out of the game, adding a secret element
8
Optional: Distribute double auction cards evenly
Deal 1 double auction card to each player in Round 1, and 1 more to each player in Round 2 (from the 12 total double auction cards)

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Reveal dummy card between turns
After both players have taken a turn, flip one card from a dummy pile face-up
2
Do not auction revealed cards
The dummy card simply increases the count of revealed paintings for that artist (similar to the optional card flip in the 3-player variant)
3
Play double auction cards only with a second card
You may only play a double auction card if you can add a second card from your hand
4
No speculative double auctions
You cannot play a double auction card alone hoping to get it back for free
5
Optional: Ensure equal auction starts
Make sure every player gets at least one chance to start an auction before each round ends

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Focus on value exchange
Players must carefully consider how much money they are willing to give opponents based on what they want to acquire
2
Standard victory conditions apply
The player with the most money at the end of the game wins
3
Expect a shorter experience
The 2-player variant provides approximately 30 minutes of enjoyable gameplay, though it lacks some depth of the full game

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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