Stats:
No. of players: 3-5
Amount of time to play: 45 – 90 minutes
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time:  5 min

Description of Modern Art Rules:

Modern Art has you playing a high-stakes art dealer. Your goal is to make money. You start with $50k and must buy and sell paintings. After four rounds the player with the most money wins. Value of a painting is determined by the most popular artist. Once 5 paintings by one artist have been put up for auction the round ends.

Paintings from the most popular artist in a round sell for the most ($30k), followed by the second most popular ($20k) and third most popular ($10k) artists. Any artist’s paintings not in the top 3 are worthless for that round. It gets interesting in later rounds where you add the previous selling prices in an artist’s column to the current selling price. This still only applies to the top 3 artists as they are the only ones that sell in a round. In between rounds you get more paintings (cards). There are different types of auctions that are determined by the painting you are selling. The different auctions add some variety and challenge for both buyers and sellers.

A Quick Review of Modern Art:

I like Modern Art a lot. It has good player interaction and is a fun auction game. That being said I have yet to master it. The strategy seems subtle, yet basic: buy low, sell high, but it is hard to know when you are striking the best deal. Also certain auction types make more money and so there is some luck involved based on the paintings you are dealt. Money is kept secret so it is tough to know who is winning at any given time. This helps eliminate ganging up and keeps everyone involved the entire game.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6