Masterpiece (1970)

Overview

Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Renoir --- paintings by the world's most famous artists are on the auction block, for sale to the highest bidder. How high will you bid before the tension and bluffing get to you? And how good's your eye --- can you spot a forgery when you buy one?

The MASTERPIECE game combines the excitement of a fast-paced board game with the glamour and sophistication of a game that deals with fine art. Some of the world's greatest paintings, illustrated in full-color postcards, are an integral part of gameplay.

The high-stakes world of international art --- and the power plays of an auction --- will entertain and enlighten as you join a particularly eccentric group of collectors who've all come in search of a MASTERPIECE.

Each player takes the role of an art collector and tries to amass the greatest fortune in cash and the value of art pieces in their collection.

The painting cards are randomized and placed face down in a stack. Matching size value cards are also mixed and placed face down in a stack. These value cards indicate the worth of the painting ranging from forgery (zero) to $1,000,000. Each player receives an equal sum of money and one painting with value card which are clipped together so that all players can see the painting and only the owning player can see the value. When paintings are drawn from the stack, a value card is clipped to them in this fashion. Players move around the board by die roll and land on spaces that allow the player to collect money from the bank, receive a painting from the stack, sell a painting to the bank for its value, sell a painting to the bank for a specified amount, auction one of their paintings to the highest bidding opponent, or auction the top painting in the stack to the highest bidder.

The game ends when the painting stack is exhausted. Players add the values of their paintings to their cash on hand. The player with the largest total wins.