A museum stopped giving out Van Gogh-inspired Pokémon cards because of the mad frenzy to get them

• The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam stopped handing out Van Gogh-inspired Pokémon cards.
• The limited-edition Pikachu cards were to be given out to people who completed a scavenger hunt.

An art museum in Amsterdam said it stopped handing out Pokémon cards inspired by Vincent Van Gogh after fans created a frenzy in the gift store to get them.

The Van Gogh Museum said it made the "difficult decision" to stop selling the coveted cards after a "small group of individuals" swarmed the gift shop, creating what the museum described as an "undesirable situation."

The limited-edition cards depicted Pikachu, the popular mascot of the Pokémon universe, wearing a felt hat and painted in the style of Van Gogh's 1887 painting "Self-Portrait With Grey Felt Hat," according to the museum's website.

The Van Gogh Museum and The Pokémon Company International said they collaborated to create the cards to celebrate the museum's 50th anniversary, and to recognize the connection between Van Gogh and Japanese art and culture.

Ticket holders had to complete a scavenger hunt, passing by Van Gogh masterpieces and Pokémon-inspired artworks, to get one of the cards, per the museum's website.

Each hunter who finished the scavenger hunt was given a card.

But the event went out of control upon its launch on September 28, when dozens of fans were seen tussling and flooding the gift shop, a video shows.

Following the launch event, the Pokémon Company issued an apology in a post on X, saying that due to "overwhelming" demand all products from the collection had sold out.

Fans took to X to criticize the company and the museum for how they handled the situation, pointing to the lack of products and planning.

The museum said it and the Pokémon Company "take the safety and security of visitors and staff very seriously".

The Van Gogh Museum is not the first establishment to have fallen victim to Pokémon's popularity.

Target temporarily stopped selling Pokémon cards in 2021, citing the safety of its customers and personnel, according to NBC News.

The Pokémon x Van Gogh collaboration was announced in mid-September in a video posted to the official Pokémon YouTube channel.

In the video, two of the most well-known Pokémon characters, Pikachu and Eevee, are seen sprinting across a sunflower field in a Van Gogh-like mountain scene flanked by haystacks and windmills.

The background then morphs into Van Gogh's distinctive heavy brushstrokes, and the sunflowers come to life and begin jumping about happily with smiles on their faces.

The video ends with a smiling sunflower in the center of Van Gogh's iconic "Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers" painting.