At least four employees of the Van Gogh Museum were suspended in mid-December due to their misconduct during the Pokémon exhibition. According to the museum, they did not adhere to the ‘procedures and codes of conduct’ for staff.
Sources report Het Parool that employees would have informed visitors in various ways about when they could buy tickets. One employee allegedly embezzled a box of Pokémon cards.
The museum confirms to the newspaper that it concerns ’employees of operational services’. This includes security guards, but also employees who work in the cloakroom and at the cash register.
Total madness
The exhibition, in which six well-known works by Van Gogh were given a special Pokémon jacket, led to total madness among visitors. The Pokémon cards that were specially made for the exhibition were only available in the museum and therefore extremely rare.
That resulted in a run among collectors, who almost literally tripped over each other to get their hands on such a card. Due to safety concerns, the museum eventually stopped the action.