Masterpiece 1970 box front
Ever scoured the Internet looking for what exactly you were missing from the old board game you pulled from your closet, only to find no succor in your time of need? Well, stop that Diabloesque mouse clickfest through endless google results, as this week we look at Parker Brothers’ 1970 classic board game, Masterpiece: The Art Auction Game.
There have been several versions of Masterpiece over the years, and you can read more about that here: The Best Classic Board Games – Masterpiece (1970) This edition of What’s In That Game Box deals only with the standard 1970 version. The contents are as follows:
The Game Box (shows six game characters bidding on a painting, and the back of the auctioneer’s head)
The Game Board (with a green back and brown front with green trim)
6 plastic player tokens (Blue, Black, Custard Yellow, Green, Red, White)
Two 6-sided dice
24 white plastic clips (for attaching the Value Cards to the Art Cards)
24 Art Cards (used with permission from the National Gallery, London, England), which are:
- Lady with a Fan, Frans Hals
- A Young Woman standing at a Virginal, Johannes Vermeer
- Aix: Paysage Rocheux, Paul Cézanne
- Cartoon: The Virgin and Child with SS. Anne and John the Baptist, Leonardi da Vinci
- Cornelis van der Geest, Sir Anthony van Dyck
- Courtyard of a House in Delft, Pieter de Hoogh
- Danseuses, Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
- Femme assise dans un Jardin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Le Chapteau de Paille, Peter Paul Rubens
- Les Parapluies, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Lower Norwood, Londres, Effet de Neige, Camille Pissarro
- Mrs. Siddons, Thomas Gainsborough
- Portrait of a Lady in Yellow, Alesso Baldovinetti
- Rain, Steam and Speed – the Great Western Railway, Joseph Mallord William Turner
- Saskia as Flora, Rembrandt van Rijn
- Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh
- The Avenue, Middelharnis, Meyndert Hobbema
- The Beach at Trouville, Claude-Oscar Monet
- The Cornfield, John Constable
- The Duke of Wellington, Francisco de Goya
- The Shrimp Girl (Sketch), William Hogarth
- The Waitress (La Servante de Bocks), Édouard Manet
- Une Baignade, Asnières, Georges Seurat
- Venice: A Regatta on the Grand Canal, Giovanni Antonio Canaletto
24 Value Cards, as follows:
- $1,000,000
- $750,000
- $700,000 (x2)
- $650,000
- $600,000 (x2)
- $550,000
- $500,000 (x2)
- $450,000 (x2)
- $400,000 (x2)
- $350,000
- $300,000 (x2)
- $250,000
- $200,000 (x2)
- $150,000
- $100,000
- FORGERY (x2)
6 Character / Distribution of Masterpiece Value Cards (Baron Dietrich von Oberlitzer; “Bitsy” Rich Wong Dobrowski Keyes; Count Francois du Bonnet; Millicent Friendly; Roxy “Big D” Warrenson, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.; V. Elton Whitehall Esq.)
A supply of play money (in denominations of $1 million; $500,000; $100,000; and $50,000)
Rules pamphlet
Aside from the cardboard inner box content separators, that’s it!
Masterpiece 1970 box contents
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Filed under: Board Games, What's In That Game? | Tagged: 1970, art cards, board game, contents, game pieces, masterpiece, paintings, parker brothers, value cards |
Recycled Thoughts from a Retro Gamer 
When were the Character cards added?
Do you know if the backs of the dollar value cards are gold or white?
I’m answering my own question. Some games have all gold backs, some have gold backs with the white border. And some have all white backs with a gold/black border
“Nighthawks” is missing from the art cards list. I was only a kid, & I didn’t understand HOW they could call that painting a masterpiece, but after it got clipped to a $1 Million card in one game, you’d better believe I LEARNED the title! (I bought it in the next round, only to find it clipped to FORGERY. Uh huh. Definitely will NEVER forget that title!!!)
Hi, I believe that series of paintings is from a later edition. The 1970 version had at least two abstracts. That list is all digital works. I do appreciate your thoroughness!! It’s the two abstracts I’m hunting down. One mostly orange, all advancing colors. The other resembles crimped aluminum foil. I’d love if someone can point me in the right direction?? 🙏
*figural – not digital. Thanks autocorrect, BFF.
I have the 1970 version and the list above is different. Perhaps the orange abstract you’re thinking of is The Golden Wall by Hans Hoffman. The “crumpled foil” is Greyed Rainbow by Jackson Pollock.
The orange one is called the golden wall by Hans Hoffman.
The cramped aluminum one is called greyed rainbow by Jackson Pollock
Not sure if this helps anyone, but I’ve been spending a ridiculous amount of hours trying to identify what all of the versions are of this game and which paintings belonged with which version. Surprisingly I am at 14 versions so far. Some have the same sets of 24 cards, some are completely different and others have a mix. I have found 5 sets from 1970 that are not US versions. 1) Canadian version displaying both French and English. 2) Canadian version displaying French only. 3) Canadian version displaying English only. 4) UK version showing English but currency is shown in British Pounds. 5) German version displaying only German, but with $ signs on the board. I have verified that #s 1,2,4 and 5 all have the same set of 24 paintings, all showing paintings from the National Gallery in London. This is the set listed in this post above. I haven’t found enough copies/photos of the #3 above (Can with English) to verify, but its very likely this also uses the same set of 24 cards. Now to the 1970 US versions. I am currently at 3 different sets of US cards from 1970. Each has some repeat paintings but the full sets do have differences. I have ID’ed all 24 for what I am calling ver 2 and ver 3 (both sets are all paintings from the Art Inst of Chicago), but still am searching to find the full set for ver 1 (of which I know 21 so far, and are a mix from the National Gallery and the Art Inst of Chicago). After the 1970s sets, there was a 1976 US set (Green box showing “talking artwork” on the cover.) This has the same 24 paintings as the US 1970 ver 2 option. I have also found 3 version from 1987. The first is a white box with an art auction on the cover. This is pretty much a full new set of 24 cards (4 are repeats from 1976). All of these are from the Art Inst of Chicago. Note that Nighthawks (a comment in this thread) is in 1970 US ver2, ver3, 1976, this 1987 version, and later 1996 versions also. There are 2 versions in 1987 that I have found which have the painting “The Laughing Cavalier” on the box and in the center of the board. One of these is a version in English and the other is entirely in German (Meisterwerke Das Kunstauktions – Spiel). These 2 have the same set of 24 paintings which are a mix of National Gallery, Art Inst of Chicago and perhaps a couple of one-offs (Laughing Cavalier – Wallace Collection?, Kaiser Maximillian I (Unknown loc) and Elohim Creating Adam (Tate Institute). Finally there are 2 1996 versions (that I have found, a US version and one that is a combo of English and French (likely a Canadian version?). The cover of these shows an art auction with an old guy in a white cowboy hat at the far left on both versions. The English version has 12 paintings that have not yet appeared in earlier versions, and 12 that were scattered among the other US versions and years. The English/French version (cover says both Masterpiece and Les Grands Maitres). I have only confirmed 17 of these paintings, where 14 seem to match the US version, 3 I can only see painting edges (but the don’t appear to be any from any other version) and the rest I have yet to ID. Certainly if anyone has this copy I’d love to learn what the full set of 24 should be. Anyway, I felt that others might be interested in getting answers from all of my efforts. I can post the full lists later, but I am considering doing this on Wikipedia for all to see in one handy place once I have the sets confirmed.
do you know which version has both nighthawks and also georgia okeefe cowskull?
How much value with 7 paintings missing
Parker brothers Hasbro 1970 # 00004-1
those are not the paintings in the 1970s edition. I have the 1970 edition. If I can dig out the game I will list the paintings, but the ones you listed are not the 70s game. I think yours is the 76 version.
Can you find your edition? I’m trying to match up my cards and none of them match above
You are correct. Missing, at the very least the Pollock and the Hooper.
My original 1970 version has only one die (as described in the instruction pamphlet) and the cards from the Art Institute of Chicago. It has a brown backed game board, and value cards with dealer bios.
After watching monuments men it made me wish I still had mine!!! Loved this game soo much….
the one we have has a lighter yellow and a brown and is missing the black.
looking at my 1970 edition i have:
26 * white plastic clips
20 * 50,000 bills
25 * 100,000 bills
26 * 500,000 bills
10 * 1,000,000, bills
I am sure back in the day, quality control was lacking and counts could be off by +/- 2.
the rest of the equipment counts match what is listed in the Rules.
Does anyone know where I can get the replacement white clips only?
I am trying to repair a 1970 version of the game I received as a kid.
I am missing the 1970 instructions. I also need to know about the denominations. I have 20 bills each of 50,000, 100,000, 500,000 and 1,000,000. In the 1970 issued game, how much money is given each player to start. My 11 yr old would like to play the game. Thanks
You can download and print a copy of the instructions here: http://magisterrex.com/BoardGames.asp (Not a scanned copy of the rules, but retyped into Word format)
No idea exactly how many bills were supposed to be in each original box, but I can tell you that even then there could be variance of a few bills here or there. Your quantity sound about right for what is typically found in a Masterpiece game.
Thank you!
$1,500,000.
You forgot the money!!!
LOL!!!! Fixed.
Do you know the quantity of each of the notes in the set? Do you have a good clear picture of one?
Mant thanks for any help you might offer.
Best wishes,
Steve