Expos: Arts, Business, & Collections (1998)

An Art Game that you don't need to know anything about Art to play and enjoy. If you can tell a nude from a vase of flowers you are in with a good chance!

Expos, is, as far as I know, only available from the Musee du Louvre, the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Marseille and the Musee d'Orsay in France. My copy was obtained by contacting the Louvre by mail. It was a gift, so I am uncertain of price.

The game is in French, English rules can be provided.

There are 126 cards in full color, showing a detail of a famous painting (eg Gauguin's The White Horse or Van Gogh's Sunflowers) and classifying it by one of the 21 painters and one of the 12 themes.

Everything is on good quality card stock.

Also provided are 34 Event Cards which are drawn after each player's turn and detail things like Fire or Critical Success or compulsory or optional auction of a painting.

There are 6 'cheat sheets' or Expos Catalogs, giving the names of the painters and the categories. In French, but they're easy enough to work out for the most part, (eg: Nu, Portrait Masculin, Marine, Hist. Relig ou Allegories,etc) and translations are given in the rules. The painting cards are helpfully colour coded which assists)

Also 6 screens help people hide their Euros, and provide a place to hang exhibition posters (there are 2 of these for each painter [so only 2 players can exhibit Monet for example] and 3 per theme [so only 3 players can exhibit Marine scenes]

140 money and loan chips in Euros are provided to buy and sell the paintings with, and to go into debt to the bank with should things get hot...

The rules are provided in French, I am not certain if the English rules are provided without request.

The plastic insert of the box provides the revolving centre of the game. 10 painting cards are separated and the rest are divided more or less evenly into four and placed in each the four easels of the carousel. The information on the card is covered by the one of the numbered cardboard easels' insert so that the painting can be seen, but not who it's by or whether it is classified as a Nude, Historical, Marine, or whatever. 1,2,3,4.

The event cards are placed face down on one side of the middle of the carousel, the spare paintings on the other.

Players are given a screen, 100.000 Euro and a cheat sheet, and a starting hand of 4 paintings.

Play proceeds by a player choosing to a) buy a painting by spending 20,000 Euro and taking a painting from any of the easels or the top of the face down spare painting pile

OR

b) exhibit one or more collections (receiving 20,000 Euro)

You need two or more paintings by the same artist to make an exhibit, or three with the same theme. You take these from your hand and put them on the table face up, and hang the appropriate poster on your screen.

OR

do nothing. A player may also in each case choose to supplement an existing exhibition in which case they will get 5,000 Euro per exhibit, regardless of how many paintings are added.

They then must take an event card, react to it as required: There may be a sudden auction, or the current exposed paintings may be destroyed or they may keep the card if it is one to be used later and then their turn is over.

The game ends when a player exhibits their 4th collection. The winner is the person with the most money at the end. The exhibitions worths are calculated using the chart on the cheat sheet.

Exhibits by artist gains the most points, but it is easier to collect by theme.

Unexhibited paintings: ie those still concealed in players' hands have a penalty of -5000 Euro each at the end of the game. Any debts are paid off if they can be.

Fast, attractive, as challenging as you want it to be.

It appears to have won some awards:
1997 Double D' Argent (Double Silver) Besancon Festival Internationa des nouveaux jeux
1998 De D'OR (Gold) Concours International de Boulogne Billancourt
1999 Prime au Salon International du Jouet de Paris Concours Lepine A.I.F.F, which I think may be a bronze.

The only other information which may be of use on the box and insert I can find about it is:

Fabrique aux Pays-Bas
Information: EXPOS Art, Business & Collections
O. Dlevaille, J-F Desbordes
112, rue Championnet - 75018 Paris - France

Expos A B & C (c) 1999 - Photos RMN - Monet (c) ADAGP 1999