The museum was stormed by Pokémon fans even though it especially wanted to introduce Van Gogh to young people as part of the celebration of the institution’s fiftieth anniversary.
The Van Gogh museum, which targets a young audience through a partnership with Pokémon, has attracted a crowd… of collectors. The latter particularly hoping to get their hands on a card showing Pikachu, wearing a felt hat inspired by theSelf-portrait with felt hat (1887) by the famous Dutch painter.
“The work of Vincent van Gogh and Pokémon have a special connection to Japanese art and culture,” explained the museum in a press release, which offers a series of activities from September 28 until January 7, 2024 to celebrate its 50 years of existence. Objective: attract a young audience and “people who would otherwise not be interested in the Van Gogh Museum.” Six paintings by Pokémon Company artists are featured.
(“We had a special guest at the launch of the Pokémon event yesterday… Pikachu! Come visit our museum to discover works on the Pokemon theme and take part in the art hunt until January 7, 2024!”)
The “Pika-Portrait”, the object of all desire
The “Pika-Portrait” card is given to visitors aged 6 and over “subject to availability” and provided that they participate in a “quest” and answer questions, according to the museum. The item is also available in official Pokémon stores in the UK, US and Canada. But the institution indicated, Friday September 29, on its X account (formerly Twitter) that in “due to massive demand, all our products in this collection are sold out” and work towards a solution.
The Pokémon card game, launched in Japan in 1996 in the wake of the video game series featuring cute pocket monsters, has experienced a resurgence of interest in recent years which has driven up prices , causing stock shortages and incidents.
“Regrettable behavior”
If the card with the painting of the Pokémon in felt-tip pen is not sold in the museum shop, the latter was not spared by “PokéMania”: images broadcast on social networks showed a crowd of adult visitors competing in posters and clothing on which paintings of Pokémon inspired by works by the famous painter have been printed.
They are described as “scalpers”, a term designating people who buy products available in limited numbers with high demand to resell them at a higher price. “The unfortunate behavior of a small number of visitors on the first day of the collaboration was not anticipated”, declared a spokesperson for the museum to AFP, who assured Saturday September 30 that it had quickly guaranteed everyone’s safety and had not had similar problems since. The museum is now limiting purchases to one of each item per person, which will soon be “available in the online store (…) while stocks last”.