In Masters Gallery, the players are art critics and gallery owners. All have their own favorite artist in this pantheon of greats - or at least they do until the game begins. Tastes and opinions about each artist's value change constantly in the world of Old Masters art.

No one has more influence on those values than the players in this game. Which player will exert the most influence? Who will best anticipate these changing tastes and opinions, and thus assemble the highest-valued collection of these masterpieces?

The cards in this game feature 30 of the most beautiful pieces of art ever created by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Degas and Vermeer. Over the course of four rounds, players use these cards to establish the relative value of each artist's body of work.

Components

• 5 Artist Cards
• 95 Masterpiece Cards
• 12 Value Tokens (4 each of values 1,2 and 3)
• 5 Award Tokens (5 Tokens of 2)

Note: Pen and paper are required for scoring, but are not included.

Setup

Display the five Artist cards in the following order in a row across the middle of the playing surface: Vermeer (17), Degas (18), Monet (19), Renoir (20) and Van Gogh (21). The numbers indicate how many Masterpiece Cards there are for each artist.

Place all Value and Award Tokens to one side. Shuffle the Masterpiece Cards and deal each player a hand of 13 cards. Place the remaining cards in a face-down deck to the right of the Artist Cards.

Reveal an "extra card" from the top of the deck, placing it face-up to the right of the deck.

Game Play

The game is played over four rounds. Players take turns displaying one Masterpiece Card from their hand by laying it down on the table in front of them.

A round ends when a cumulative (all players combined) total of six (or five in a two-player game) Masterpiece Cards of one artist are displayed. The players then score their displayed Masterpieces - the more Masterpieces there are of a given artist, the higher the value of each of these Masterpieces.

One player is chosen to start the first round, and play progresses clockwise. On each player's turn, he selects one Masterpiece Card from his hand and displays it face-up in front of him.

Masterpiece Cards should be grouped by individual artist in front of each player. If the card played shows a symbol, follow the directions below. Then play moves to the next player.

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  Draw one card - from the deck and add it to your hand. (There is one of these cards for each artist).

  
  
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  Play a second card face-up - You may immediately play a second card of the same artist. Ignore the symbol on the second card. (There is one of these cards for each artist).

  
  
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  Play a second card face-down - You may immediately play a second card of any artist face-down in front of you. Ignore the symbol on the second card. (There are two of these cards for each artist).

  
  
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  Simultaneous play - All players select one card from their hand. Players reveal their cards simultaneously and add them to their displays. Ignore the symbol on these cards. (There is one of these cards for each artist).

  
  
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  Place one Award Token - Take one of the Award Tokens and place it on any one of the Artist Cards of your choice. (There is one of these cards for each artist).

  
  

Round Ends

With three to five players, a round ends when the sixth Masterpiece Card of any one artist has been displayed - cumulatively by all of the players - including the "extra card" to the right of the Artist Cards.

With two players, a round ends when the fifth masterpiece of any one artist has been displayed. If the card that ends a round shows a symbol, the round ends instantly and the symbol is ignored.

If a player has no more cards in his hand, he no longer participates in the round. In the rare event that all players have played all their cards, the round is ended.

Scoring

To score the round, players reveal the face-down cards they have played during the round and add them to their respective Masterpiece Card groups.

They then place a Value 3 Token next to the Artist Card with the most displayed Masterpieces, a Value 2 Token next to the Artist Card with the second-most displayed Masterpieces, and a Value 1 Token next to the Artist Card with the third-most displayed Masterpieces.

Ties are always broken in favor of the artist with the lowest number (of 17-21 that is) shown on the Artist Card.

The value of each Masterpiece Card of each of the 3 leading artists of this round is derived by adding up all the Value and Award Tokens on and next to their Artist Cards. The remaining two artists do not score in this round, even if they have Award and/or Value Tokens on their Artist Card from previous rounds.

Starting with the player who finished the round and progressing clockwise, each player now calculates the value of his displayed cards.The result is recorded on a notepad.

For each different artist with Masterpiece Cards displayed in front of the player, he may play one additional card from his hand, add it to his Masterpiece Cards, and score it.

After scoring, the three Value Tokens are placed onto the Artist Cards and all displayed Masterpiece Cards are discarded from the game.

Before the start of the next round, a new "extra card" from the deck is placed face-up to the right of the deck. This "extra" Masterpiece Card counts toward the cumulative total of six (or five for two players) which ends the round.

# of Players =	2	3	4	5
Cards in Round 1	13	13	13	13
Cards in Round 2	6	6	4	2
Cards in Round 3	6	6	4	2
Cards in Round 4	3	0	0	0

Each player is dealt additional Masterpiece Cards from the face-down deck to refresh their hands according to the chart above. The player to the left of the one who finished the round starts the new round.

When scoring later rounds, the Value and Award Tokens on the Artist Cards from previous rounds count towards the value of each displayed card - provided the artist makes it to the "top three" of that particular round.

The two artists with the fewest displayed masterpieces in the round do not score - even if they have Award and/or Value Tokens on their Artist Card from previous rounds.

End of the Game

The game ends after the fourth round has been scored. The player with the highest point total is the winner.

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