UNDERCOVER A.R.T. (Art Retrieval Task Force) is an original card game designed to teach players about art looting during World War II.
Players are given the opportunity to play as “Monuments Men” at the tail end of the war and recover plundered works of art.
UNDERCOVER A.R.T.
Assist in the recovery of one of the “greatest robberies in history”
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Congratulations!
Based on your previous experience in the arts, and because of your valuable knowledge of the field, you’ve been assigned to the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit (MFA&A).
. . . It’s 1945, and you are serving as a Monuments Officer as the Second World War comes to a close. You have received reports of caches of looted art that was plundered by the Nazis, and it is your task, alongside your MFA&A unit, to recover the illegally seized artworks and cultural objects, and return the pieces to their rightful owners.
YOUR TASK:
Collect sets of cards before your opponents do. The first person to complete their hand wins the round. Continue playing until a certain score is reached by a player and they are crowned winner.
Game Instructions
The premise of the game follows a simple set-collecting organization. Draw and discard cards from the pile on the table and build sets according to designated categories (see meld combinations for acceptable sets).
The first player to complete their hand and get rid of their cards wins the round. Rounds are played until a player achieves a certain score.
Historical Background and Research
All of the images and content that informed this game that are shown on the cards were carefully sourced and researched to ensure a high degree of accuracy.
The point of the game is to educate players on the years-long deliberate theft of cultural property during the Second World War.
While art theft and cultural property plunder has been common practice for centuries, it was important for me to convey in my game that the plunder of art primarily from Jewish families was intentional and was a large part of the Holocaust that many people do not know about.
All Cards
View all 52 cards in the UNDERCOVER A.R.T. deck.
