The Pikachu Van Gogh card: the story behind the SVP 085 promo

By Eduard Mihaila · July 3, 2026

The “Pikachu Van Gogh card” is one of the most talked-about Pokémon promos of the modern era — not for its play value, but for the chaos around it. Officially Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat (SVP 085), it was created for the 2023 collaboration between The Pokémon Company International and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, marking the museum’s 50th anniversary. Within days of launch, scalpers overran the museum shop and the card was pulled from distribution — turning a free gift-with-purchase into a collector’s flashpoint.

Quick answer: The Pikachu Van Gogh card — officially Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat, SV Black Star Promo 085 — is a Full Art promo from the 2023 Pokémon × Van Gogh Museum collaboration, showing Pikachu restyled after Van Gogh’s 1887 Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat. Scalper chaos forced the museum to stop handing it out, making it one of the era’s most sought-after promos.

What is the Pikachu Van Gogh card?

It’s a promotional Pokémon TCG card: a Basic Lightning-type Pikachu with 60 HP, printed as a Full Art SV Black Star Promo, number 085, and illustrated by Naoyo Kimura. It was never sold on its own — at the Van Gogh Museum you earned it by completing a “Pokémon Adventure” activity, and elsewhere it came as a gift with Pokémon Center × Van Gogh Museum merchandise. If you’re unsure how promo numbering works, see how to identify a card by its set and number.

Which Van Gogh painting inspired it — and were there others?

Pikachu’s look is taken from Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat (1887). It was one of six artworks created for the collaboration, each pairing a Pokémon with a specific painting:

• Pikachu — Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat (Naoyo Kimura)
• Eevee — Self-Portrait with Straw Hat (sowsow)
• Smeargle — Self-Portrait as a Painter (Tomokazu Komiya)
• Sunflora — Sunflowers (Tomokazu Komiya)
• Munchlax & Snorlax — The Bedroom (sowsow)
• Corviknight — replacing the crows in Wheatfield with Crows (Naoyo Kimura)

Of these, only Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat was printed and distributed as a TCG promo.

Why did the museum pull the card?

Demand was overwhelming and, more seriously, unsafe. In the days after launch, videos showed crowds of resellers crowding the museum shop, with reports of pushing and aggressive behaviour. The Van Gogh Museum stopped giving out the Pikachu promo over safety concerns, and online stock sold out almost immediately. On 29 September 2023 The Pokémon Company acknowledged the sell-out and said it was “actively working on ways to provide more ‘Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat’ promo cards for fans shopping at Pokémon Center in the future.”

Is the Pikachu Van Gogh card rare or valuable?

During the October 2023 shortage, sealed copies were listed anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000, and single prices climbed on the secondary market. But those were peak-scarcity numbers: after The Pokémon Company confirmed wider distribution, supply and prices normalised, and today values depend heavily on grade (raw vs PSA 9/10) and demand. As with any card, the reliable move is to price your copy on its current market rather than trust a headline figure — the same logic that applies to valuing any Pokémon card by condition and market.

How do I identify and value a promo like this?

Promos are exactly where mistakes happen: the same character exists across many prints, and value hinges on the exact promo number and condition. Scanning a card reads its name, language and number and prices it on the right market, then files it into a collection whose value updates over time — see how collection tracking works.

Sources

• Van Gogh Museum — Pokémon × Van Gogh Museum
• Pokémon.com — Get a Pokémon × Van Gogh Museum Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat Promo Card
• Bulbapedia — Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat (SVP Promo 85)
• Serebii — SV Promos #85 Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat
• Gizmodo — Pokémon Company Apologizes After Van Gogh Collaboration Causes Scalping Mayhem
• Dot Esports — Van Gogh Museum removes Pikachu promo card to combat scalpers
• Cardmarket — Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat (SVP085) price data

Want to catalogue and value your own cards — promos included? Poke - Deck scans and prices Pokémon cards in English, French and Japanese from your iPhone camera. Start free with 25 scans; unlimited tracking is available with no commitment.