Why Monopoly Is the Coolest—and Cruelest—Game Ever Sold

Celebrating 80 years of bankrupting your friends and family

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Dec. 17, 2010 was a nail-biter for the staff at the National Museum of Play. Its curator made the 250-mile trip from Rochester, N.Y., to New York where he sat in Sotheby's wood-paneled auction room. "It was our curator and a phone bidder—just the two of them," recalled collections vp Christopher Bensch, "and it was all over in under a minute." The museum parted with $146,500 but gained a crown jewel. The world's oldest known Monopoly board had been sold.

Photo: Nick Ferrari

Monopoly turns 80 this year, and while you might think that the digital age and the effects of the Great Recession would dampen enthusiasm for a board game that's all about foreclosures and bankruptcies, neither has.

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