Modern Art

Overview

Modern Art is an auction game where players act as museum curators buying and selling paintings. Over four rounds, players auction painting cards from their hand. At the end of each round, paintings are sold to the bank based on how popular their artist was that round. Artists that sell more paintings are more valuable. The player with the most money after four rounds wins.

Components

• 1 game board (artist columns with 4 round rows for value tiles)
• 70 painting cards (5 artists: Manuel Carvalho 12, Sigrid Thaler 13, Daniel Melim 12, Ramon Martins 12, Rafael Silveira 12; plus auction type)
• 5 museum screens
• 1 hammer token (auctioneer marker)
• 132 money tokens (1k, 5k, 10k, 25k, 50k, 100k euros)
• 12 artist value tiles (10k, 20k, 30k)

Setup

1. Shuffle the 70 painting cards. Deal cards based on player count:
   • 3 players: 10 cards each
   • 4 players: 9 cards each
   • 5 players: 8 cards each
2. Give each player 100k euros.
3. Each player takes a museum screen to hide their money.
4. The youngest player takes the hammer and begins.

Turn Structure

The game is played over 4 auction rounds. Each round:

1. Players take turns auctioning paintings from their hand.
2. When a 5th painting of any single artist is played, the round ends immediately (the 5th painting is NOT auctioned).
3. All purchased paintings are sold to the bank based on artist rankings.
4. New cards are dealt and the next round begins.

Actions

Running an Auction

The player with the hammer (auctioneer) plays a painting card face up and conducts the auction according to the card’s auction type. After the auction resolves, the hammer passes to the next player clockwise.

Five Auction Types

A. Open Auction: All players (including auctioneer) bid freely in any order. Highest bid wins. If no bids, auctioneer gets it free.

B. One Offer Auction: Starting left of auctioneer, clockwise, each player bids once or passes. Each bid must exceed the previous. Auctioneer bids last. If no bids, auctioneer gets it free.

C. Hidden Auction: All players simultaneously place a secret bid in their closed fist. Fists open simultaneously; highest bidder wins. Ties: closest to auctioneer clockwise wins. If no bids, auctioneer gets it free.

D. Fixed Price Auction: Auctioneer announces a price. Starting left, clockwise, players may buy at that price (first buyer wins). If no one buys, the auctioneer MUST buy it at the stated price. The auctioneer cannot declare more than they have.

E. Double Auction: Auctioneer plays a Double card and may add a second card of the same artist (not another Double). Both are auctioned together using the second card’s auction type. If the auctioneer cannot/won’t play a second card, each player clockwise may play one. If another player plays the second card, they become the new auctioneer and receive all payment. If no second card is played, the auctioneer gets the original painting free.

General Auction Rules

• All bids in units of 1k euros.
• Cannot bid more than you have.
• Winner pays the auctioneer. If the auctioneer wins, they pay the bank instead.
• Winner places the painting face up in front of their screen.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

End of Round – Selling to the Bank

Count paintings played (including unsold 5th painting) per artist. Rank artists by number sold:

Rank	Value per painting
1st most	30k euros
2nd most	20k euros
3rd most	10k euros
All others	0 (worthless)

Ties: the artist closer to the left side of the board ranks higher.

Place artist value tiles on the board. Each player sells all paintings they purchased that round to the bank for the tile value. Discard all sold paintings.

Cumulative Value

In subsequent rounds, an artist’s value is the sum of all value tiles in their column across all rounds (but only if they rank in the top 3 that round; unranked artists’ paintings are worthless regardless of past tiles).

New Round Card Dealing

Players	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4
3	6	6	0
4	4	4	0
5	3	3	0

New cards are added to cards remaining from previous rounds.

End of Game

After the 4th round’s paintings are sold, the player with the most money wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• The 5th painting of any artist ends the round immediately and is NOT auctioned or owned by anyone.
• If the 5th painting is the second card of a Double Auction, two paintings go unsold.
• Players keep unplayed cards between rounds.
• A player who runs out of cards cannot auction but can still bid.
• If all players run out of cards before the 4th round ends naturally, the round ends and the final painting played is not auctioned.
• Paintings are never carried over between rounds; only cards in hand carry over.

Player Reference

Auction types: Open (free bidding)

One Offer (clockwise, one bid each)

Hidden (simultaneous sealed)

Fixed Price (take-it-or-leave-it)

Double (pair same artist)

Round end: 5th painting of any artist played -> rank artists -> sell paintings -> deal new cards

Artist values: 30k/20k/10k for top 3 artists by paintings played; cumulative across rounds if ranked

Winner pays: Auctioneer (or bank if auctioneer wins the auction)