All Things Art Basel 2007

This week Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) gathers 200 elite galleries at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Half a billion dollars is poised to change hands during the next frenzied four days, as our fair city becomes an international Opa-locka/Hialeah Flea Market for art swells. Soon there will be more private jets than turkey buzzards flying over downtown's Miami-Dade County Courthouse.

Close to 1,000 galleries and dealers have taken stalls at the 20-plus piggyback fairs doing business on the Beach and across the bay. They open eager arms — and empty wallets — to the invading hordes of collectors, curators, museum honchos, and media. Hotel rooms have been booked for months, often at double the cost.

ABMB, and the viral rash of satellite fairs it now spawns, has become the largest arts confab on the planet — a rollicking, no-holds-barred, mayhem-and-moolah-driven version (unlike its staid Swiss progenitor, which ABMB has outgrown) where anyone clamoring for a piece of real estate just might — given enough nerve — have a shot at getting it.

So let's have a little fun with the rampant commodity Art Basel has become with a game or two of Baselopoly! While you're at it, snag a few deed cards — our Critic's Picks — and roll the dice on where to go and what to see. The rules are fairly simple: Pass Go. Avoid Parking Hell. And get rich quick.

Click below to download a PDF file of the Baselopoly board!