At least four employees of the museum have been fired in connection with limited edition Pokemon cards.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has reportedly fired four employees in the aftermath of a controversy surrounding the museum's Pokemon exhibition from last Fall.
The beloved series has been honoured in many in-person exhibitions, but one of the most recent exhibitions, the collaboration between Pokemon and Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, featuring the iconic creatures drawn in the style of prolific artist Vincent Van Gogh, has caused quite the stir.
The event featured a limited-edition trading card, the "Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat" - modeled on Van Gogh’s 1887 self-portrait but featuring the Pikachu character - which was available for museum visitors.
When the Pokemon merch for the Van Gogh collaboration sold out days after the opening, the museum ended up removing the Pokemon promo cards altogether because of safety concerns.
The “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” card was one of the cards pulled from the exhibit, due to some aggressive fans trying to acquire it.
Now, several employees of the museum have been fired in connection with said item.
The news was first reported by the Dutch newspaper Het Parool, which confirmed that the employees would not be returning to their jobs after being suspended in December 2023.
Reports state that at least four employees have been suspended, with charges against the employees including embezzling boxes of the limited-edition Pokemon cards featured in the event.
One staffer, who had worked for the museum for 25 years, allegedly told visitors exactly when they could best nab the cards, a breach of the museum’s procedures and codes of conduct.
Some of the game's cards can fetch thousands of dollars, with limited-edition cards fetching higher values. Some eBay listings even show sellers seeking as much as $100,000 (€92,000) for their "Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat".
The popularity of Pokemon and its trading card game has led to scalping becoming a major issue within the game's community, and rumours that the discontinued card and the exhibition were going to be relaunched next month have now been quashed.
