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'Free Anna Delvey' Art Exhibit Raises Funds For Fraudster Anna Sorokin
Alfredo Martinez, who served time for forging Jean-Michel Basquiat art, and Julia Morrison, who is known for minting Armie Hammer NFTs, curated the event to raise legal funds for Anna Sorokin.
A art show in New York City is showcasing work drawn by and inspired by Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress whose story has recently been portrayed in Netflix's “Inventing Anna.”
The show, entitled “Free Anna Delvey” — referencing Sorokin’s preferred name and the one she used while posing as a German heiress — features drawings and art by 33 different artists who have been inspired by Sorokin’s story, the New York Times reports. The show also supposedly includes five of Sorokin’s own 22x30 inch pencil and acrylic drawings. However, as the New York Times points out, the drawings were actually reproduced on large-print watercolor paper by Alfredo Martinez, the show’s co-curator.
Martinez himself is no stranger to fraud charges. He actually served prison time in the early 2000s for mail and wire fraud for forging Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings.
“If she’s gonna get someone to copy her artwork, it’s good she got a Basquiat forger to do it,” Martinez told Insider. The show's other co-curator, Julia Morrison, is known for minting NFTs of messages she claims actor Armie Hammer, who was accused of rape last year, sent her. (Hammer has denied the rape allegations.)
Sorokin's reproduced sketches are priced at $10,000 a piece. About 25% of the show’s proceeds are reportedly going towards Sorokin’s legal defense.
The 31-year-old Russian-born German was convicted in 2019 of eight charges, including grand larceny and theft after masquerading as an heiress between 2013 and 2017.
Sorokin solicited $275,000 from friends, banks and businesses for what she has always maintained that was a legitimate business plan for her project, the Anna Delvey Foundation. Her lawyer has stated that she was merely trying to "fake it til she made it" in the difficult career waters of New York City.
She was released from prison last February but was detained six weeks later by ICE for overstaying her visa. She, along with other detainees, filed a class-action lawsuit against ICE earlier this month for allegedly neglecting to protect her from COVID-19.
Sorokin now faces deportation to Germany for overstaying her visa.
