Scalpers descend on Van Gogh Museum for Pokémon

Chaos descended on Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum as Pokémon fans and scalpers pushed and shoved their way to rare Pokémon merchandise. The Pokémon exhibition at the museum opened on Sept. 28, promising a special promo Pokémon card of Pikachu wearing Van Gogh’s iconic grey hat.

Beyond fans taking in the the surreal paintings — or should I say, post-impressionist — that put Pokémon into Van Gogh’s work, the Van Gogh Museum attracted people seemingly interested in buying up exclusive Pokémon merchandise to sell for high prices online. Video footage of the only-accessible gift shop shows crowds of shoppers grabbing up postcards and other merchandise.

Pikachu promotional cards are already being sold for hundreds of dollars on websites that resell items, such as eBay. Other merch from the event, like tote bags, prints, and a Pikachu-dressed-as-Van-Gogh plush, are listed there, too. Several of these items, however, will be available officially on the Pokémon Center website and the Van Gogh Museum website, limited to one piece per product for each customer.

For in-person visitors, a Van Gogh Museum representative said it’s changing its policy to do the same — limit purchases to one per person. The initial reaction, they said, was “very positive,” but the situation in the gift shop wasn’t ideal:

It’s very exciting to finally share our collaboration with Pokémon with the world. The initial reactions have been very positive. Of course, the situation shown in the video’s [sic] isn’t how we would like it to be. The collaboration with Pokémon has been carefully prepared. Safety of visitors and employees is our number one priority. There may, however, be unforeseeable situations which we are unable to anticipate. We act quickly in such situations. As a result, we have become accustomed to a wide range of visitors and are always happy to welcome them. We will begin tomorrow. [will]Limit the sale of one product per customer in both our online shop and Museum Shop. The products may not be available.

The Pokémon Company has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment.