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Van Gogh Museum released a special collaboration with Pokémon, but fans were left disappointed as resellers flooded the museum to sell the exclusive pieces for higher value.
The exhibition is a celebration of the museum 50th anniversary and to educate children on the Dutch artist’s life, who was extremely inspired by Japanese art. It is be available from Sept. 28 until Jan. 7, 2024.
A video going viral on X, formally known as Twitter, showcases large crowds shoving and pushing each other as they grab as many exclusive pieces as they can to resell them for higher value. The video has gained more than 2 million views in the past day.
This makes me so sad and is why we can’t have nice things
I saw so many wanting to go over in the first few days just to get any card and merch to resell. This is not an acceptable practice. If you do that, shame on you. https://t.co/vVHLHhVyZ1
— Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) September 28, 2023
“I saw so many wanting to go over in the first few days just to get any card and merch to resell,” said Joe Merrick, freelance journalist and webmaster of the Pokémon website Serebii.net.
One of the exclusive cards, Pikachu in a grey felt hat, is available for free to those who book a museum ticket and complete the answers to a “Pokémon Adventure” that get handed to them by the museum’s information desks.
The card now is being resold for over ¥29,789.
The collaboration was announced via a trailer posted on Sept. 12 that showcases Pokémon’s beloved Pikachu and Eevee running through a field of sunflowers and windmills, which are elements that the late Dutch artist used frequently in his paintings.
Later, the sky morphs into Van Gogh’s post-impressionist style using his signature brush strokes, leaving the two Pokémon creatures in awe. The sunflowers transform into multiple Sunflora, the Pokémon plant, who run to Pikachu and Eevee.
Located in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh museum is one of the most popular museums in the world, offering the biggest collection of paintings, drawings, and letters by one of the most influential artists in the world Vincent Willem van Gogh.
The Van Gogh Museum and the Pokémon Company have announced a variety of collaborations separately in the last few years. In 2022, the Van Gogh Museum collaborated with the Dutch brand MUD Jeans, offering denim pieces that featured the late artist’s handwriting.
On the other hand, Pokémon collaborated with JAPAN HOUSE in Los Angeles earlier this year for an exhibition that features different depictions of Pokémon characters using traditional Japanese craft.
