Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
Notorious fake heiress fraudster Anna Sorokin is staging an art exhibition at a swanky New York hotel tomorrow night from behind bars.
Russian-born Sorokin conned more than USD 250,000 (GBP 202,000) out of wealthy acquaintances and businesses during a five-year spree.
Sorokin had convinced them that she was a wealthy German heiress called Anna Delvey about to come into a multi-million dollar inheritance.
Now she plans to make up to USD 500,000 from her show despite being behind bars for what could be a 12-year sentence for grand larceny.
Art dealer Chris Martine – who is organising the show – said: “It wasn’t easy getting anything in or out of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].
“Most of the art materials and paper were declined/confiscated.
“Only materials got in were some colored pencils, and 9×12 watercolor paper. No erasers.
“She relied heavily on her jail pens and jail pencils which are essentially dull rubber writing instruments.
“Somehow she was able to make exceptional, heavily detailed sketches with zero indication of a single mistake or smudge. Incredibly astonishing.”
He went on: “The total valuation of the collection will be set in the $400-500k range.”
In real life, Sorokin was an intern at a fashion magazine before she turned to crime.
Her method was to claim she had forgotten her wallet or that there were problems with her credit cards.
Now she is to star in a one-woman art exhibition at the upmarket Public Hotel in Manhattan’s Lower East Side on Thursday, 19th May.
The show is an invitation-only private event and will feature the inmate herself via video link from her jail.
The exhibition, titled ‘Allegedly’, will consist of 20 pieces created by Sorokin from prison over the past two months.
Martine, who represents the inmate through the advisory firm Founders Art Club, said: “We have received extensive interest already from art dealers, collectors and galleries.”
The art dealer hopes the collection will eventually be sold “at a distinguished private sale or major auction house like Christie’s or Sotheby’s”.
Fraudster Sorokin was arrested in 2017 and convicted of attempted grand larceny, larceny in the second degree and theft of services in a New York state court in 2019.
She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison and is currently being held at the Orange County Correctional Facility pending deportation to Germany.
A TV adaptation of Sorokin’s story titled Inventing Anna and starring American actress Julia Garner of Ozark fame in the lead role was released by Netflix this year.
