Anna Delvey is planning to hold an art show.
Anna Delvey is holding an art show
The con artist - born Anna Sorokin and nicknamed the Soho Grifter after she defrauded friends, hotels and financial institutions while vying to create a members’ only art space - is showcasing a “collection of sketches” at New York City's Public Hotel that she created while awaiting deportation back to Germany after being found guilty of one count of attempted grand larceny, three counts of grand larceny and four counts of theft of services in 2019.
After the attention garnered by a ‘Free Anna’ art show in March, the 31-year-old convicted criminal told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column: “This is a collection of sketches I’ve created while in ICE Orange County detention. I wanted to capture some of the moments of the past years, both never-seen-before and iconic, using the limited tools I have at my disposal. Some of the pieces are straightforward, others are more abstract and will be unique in meaning and appearance to the observer.”
Anna - who will appear at the show via video link - called it “the beginning” of her reclaiming her “story”.
She said: "I studied fashion illustration at Parsons in Paris, but haven’t sketched since and only again now in this upstate NY prison. Long story — don’t ask me why. You’ve heard so many voices already, but this is the beginning of me telling my story, my narrative, from my perspective.”
The inspiration for Netflix’s ‘Inventing Anna’ - who used the $320,000 fee from the streaming service to pay her debt - will be working with art dealer Chris Martine, who shared it “wasn’t easy” to get art materials to Anna.
He told the outlet: “It wasn’t easy getting anything in or out. Most of the art materials and paper was declined/confiscated. The only materials we got in were some colored pencils and 9 x 12 watercolor paper. She relied heavily on her jail pens and pencils which are essentially dull rubber writing instruments.”
According to Chris - who owns the Founders Art Club - the collection is worth $500,000, to which he is selling 48 per cent in lieu of individual pieces.
Currently, Anna is having her appeal handled by lawyer Duncan Levin and Manubir S. Arora while she remains in ICE custody despite a representative telling Page Six that she “can self-deport now to whatever country she is able to go to, but chooses to stay here to fight her conviction and deportation.”