Fake heiress Anna Delvey reportedly pocketed $320,000 from Netflix and earlier this month a New York art exhibition helped raise money to pay for her legal fees, with some works priced between $6,000 and $8,000.
Now, the former socialite, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, is all set to hold her first solo art show in April, featuring works created in prison, with pieces starting at $10,000.
Sorokin, who is currently being held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was arrested in 2017. Following a widely reported trial, she was sentenced to four to 12 years in jail after being found guilty of tricking Manhattan's elite into thinking she was a wealthy German heiress named Anna Delvey worth €60 million ($67.9m).
She ended up serving three years and three months of her sentence before being freed in 2021 for good behaviour, but was then arrested two months later for overstaying her visa. She now faces deportation.
The wildly popular Netflix series Inventing Anna has only added to Sorokin's infamy, inspiring New York artist and curator Alfredo Martinez to host a pop up called the “Free Anna Delvey” exhibition — the proceeds of which went to pay for Sorokin's legal fees.
Martinez, who himself spent nearly two years in prison after selling forged paintings he told buyers were by Jean-Michel Basquiat, is represented by Founders Art Club, which is organising the Delvey exhibition in April.
Chris Martine, the co-founder of Founders Art Club, said about 20 works by Delvey, most of them sketches and all created while in detention, will be on display.
“I would consider her style kind of a crossover between fashion sketches and satirical comics,” Martine told artnews.com. “She has an intriguing style, but the more important thing is really the intangibles that she brings to the table, which is that people are just fascinated by her.”
The works were “adapted” by Martinez into large formats for the exhibition, Martine said, as Sorokin was denied larger paper in prison. Each artwork will start at $10,000, with limited edition prints to also be sold on Founders Art Club's website.
A date and location for the exhibition will be finalised once Sorokin's work is done, Martine told Forbes, and said that there’s already been interest from prospective buyers.
Last week, US immigration authorities denied reports that Sorokin, 31, was to imminently be deported to Germany, saying she “remains in Ice custody pending removal”.
Sorokin was born in Russia but immigrated to Germany at age 16 with her family.
