Modern Art

Prepare the table

Use the CMON auction edition. Give each player one hundred in game money behind a museum screen. Shuffle the seventy paintings and deal ten each with three players, nine with four, or eight with five. Keep undealt cards aside. Set out the artist-value board and choose the first auctioneer. Hand cards are stock for sale; they do not yet belong to your museum.

Play a turn

On your turn offer a hand card and use its auction symbol. In an open auction everyone, including you, can raise freely. In a one-offer auction, go clockwise from your left, each person bidding once or passing; you act last. For hidden bids everyone reveals a concealed amount together; ties favor you, then the tied player nearest your left. In a fixed-price auction announce a price you could personally afford; players from your left may accept in order, and if nobody does you must buy it yourself.

A double-auction card allows a second painting of the same artist, which cannot itself be a double; auction both using that second card's symbol. If you decline to supply it, offer the opportunity clockwise. Whoever supplies it becomes auctioneer and receives all proceeds; the original contributor gets none. If nobody supplies it, you keep the double card for free.

Bids use whole money units, must be affordable and must exceed earlier bids except simultaneous hidden ties. The winning buyer pays the auctioneer; an auctioneer buying their own lot pays the bank. Unbid lots go to the auctioneer free, except fixed-price lots. Display purchases face up. The next auctioneer is left of the actual auctioneer, including after a double auction.

The instant a fifth painting of one artist is offered, stop the round without auctioning that painting. If it was the second card of a double, neither card is sold. Count every offered painting, including the ending card or pair, to rank artists. Ties favor the artist further left on the board. Give this round's top three artists value markers of thirty, twenty and ten; other artists receive none.

Sell every museum painting to the bank. An artist in this round's top three pays the sum of all their value markers from this and earlier rounds; an artist outside the top three pays zero even with old markers. Discard sold and ending paintings, but retain hand cards. Before rounds two and three deal six more each with three players, four with four, or three with five. Deal none before round four. Resume left of the player who ended the previous round. Players without hand cards skip auctioneering but still bid.

Finish and score

After selling round four, reveal money; most wins. Share an exact tie. If all hands empty before the usual round end, the last offered card is not auctioned: rank and sell that round, then end the game.

Host the first game

The Reddit first-play discussion shows how much this game's appeal depends on the group's bidding and sales talk. It also recommends a scoring example: show an artist earning nothing in one round, then recovering earlier value when ranked again. Explain potential payout before asking newcomers to set a price.

Already know the game?

Ideas & Twists

Choose a variation together before you start.