Booming resale market for cards featuring Pikachu in style of Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait With Grey Felt Hat
Visitors crowd round Pokémon paintings inspired by Van Gogh’s works such as Self-Portrait With Grey Felt Hat at the Van Gogh Museum, which was offering free Pikachu cards.Visitors crowd round Pokémon paintings inspired by Van Gogh’s works such as Self-Portrait With Grey Felt Hat at the Van Gogh Museum, which was offering free Pikachu cards.They are more commonly associated with pop concerts or football matches than art exhibitions.
With touts feeding a booming resale market online for cards featuring Pikachu in the style of Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait With Grey Felt Hat, it said it would stop handing them out. From the first day of the temporary exhibition three weeks ago, there was a feverish atmosphere in an institution better known for handing out sunflowers and hostingWithin an hour, the queue to see six small paintings featuring Pokémon characters inspired by Van Gogh was three deep. Visitors were racing to complete a treasure hunt to win their free card, the museum was fully booked and many toys had sold out.
There were scenes of scrambling in the shop for postcards, bags, branded clothes and toys and within days, people were offering the free cards, had told her friend Chanel Elbertsen that they needed to be at the train station first thing in the morning, and was one of the first 50 guests. “I was excited,” said Elbertsen, armed with a bag full of stock including one of the toys. “It’s one of my favourite painters; I love Pokémon and I have been playing since I was young.