Madhujith Venkatakrishna
India
Bangalore
Karnataka
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This is one of those review where I'll not be going over the rules or the components in detail. Lots of great review already exists.
Well in fact that brings me to the point- DO WE NEED A REVIEW OF A GAME PUBLISHED IN 1992??
This game has been there for a long long time, but I got into this recently and played it about a dozen times. I had only heard of this game, but was speculative thinking, well "this is just another auction game" what can be so different here that my friends go gaga over this!! In fact there isn't a session that I've seen them where Modern Art is not played (though I abstained all this while).....AND I REGRET having missed the opportunity earlier 
Very quickly- this is a very simple game of Buy Low/Sell High make profit and person with the highest money wins, and I guess this explanation of this game is the most deceptive part, which might not appear to be very different or appealing to people.
While on the face of it, this game is just buy/sell, personally I feel it is an excellent game of human behavior (well, as big as it may sound, I found that to be true!!). How people can give into the temptation and react to a situation, how a smart chap can manipulate other players through smart cards that he/she brings out to auction. This to me is the crux!
Most games invariable you would see people ending up giving into their temptation and paying more than what they would have ideally liked to; ending up on the losing side. The subtleties in this game is huge. Knowing when to get which auction, how much should I quote so that it is attractive to others, but not expensive. How do I make money, but ensure that the money gets distributed among others when the bank valuates your portfolio. Do you go on an all out buy strategy vs. just sell strategy. Do you buy selectively, if so, how much are you ready to risk. How can you promote the cards so that it encourages others to be more forthcoming and make them believe they are in with a chance, whilst you are running away with the game?
On the face of it all the above questions don't appear apparent, but sit down after a game and this is a try something new the next time thought to ponder and try it around next time.
This is one such game, where an extremely aggressive player and an extremely safe keeping player can both have a good chance of winning.
Lot of people believe (atleast in my groups) that there is too much randomness, luck involved and chaotic and move away from this without giving a fair try, sad, but I COMPLETELY DISAGREE TO THIS FACT.
I do agree that the cards that come into your hand is random, but there after it is you who can actually control the game and there is no randomness (specially with people having experience in this game). During the learning curve, for sure people might commit mistake by either quoting a price (say for example for a fixed price auction, which btw according to me is one of the most difficult auction type) too high or too low, or they might bring the round to a close by just getting cards from one artist or 2. But then they learn quickly too!!
All said and done,this seems to be one game where either people love it or hate it. For me this is a HIT and so is it with my core gaming group. I managed to convert 2 other groups that I play with to love this game.
As cliched as it may sound, the group with which you play makes a difference, but I SAY YOU CAN CREATE THE GROUP'S THINKING YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH 
One of the top games from Reiner Knizia, and a must for anyone who loves simple rules, but intense player interaction and tense auctions. I'm SOLD!!
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