The husband of the late dealer Brent Sikkema—who was murdered at his home in Rio de Janeiro on 14 January 2024—has been charged with hiring a man to kill him. Officials from the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and US attorney’s office in Manhattan announced four charges on Tuesday (11 February) against Daniel Sikkema, including one count of murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death and one count of conspiracy to murder and maim a person in a foreign country; he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison or death.
Brent Sikkema was found dead at his home in the Jardim Botânico neighbourhood of Rio on 15 January 2024, with 18 stab wounds. At the time he was 75 years old and in the midst of a bitter divorce dispute with Daniel Sikkema, with whom he had been married for more than a decade and had a teenaged son. Days after the murder, a suspect was arrested. Two months later, Brent Sikkema was arrested in New York amid suspicions that he was involved in his husband’s murder. At the time he was charged with passport fraud; Tuesday's superseding indictment adds three more charges.
“In the midst of a tense divorce, Daniel Sikkema allegedly financed the premature death of his estranged husband,” James E. Dennehy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said in a statement. “The defendant allegedly hired a hitman to facilitate the international murder of his husband, and attempted to conceal his involvement in this callous plan.”
According to the charges, Brent Sikkema allegedly hired the man who has been accused of carrying out the murder—referred to as “CC-1” in the indictment, but identified as Alejandro Triana Prevez by Brazilian police. Sikkema allegedly arranged for a $5,000 payment to Prevez following the murder, promising further payment to follow.
In a statement to The New York Times a lawyer representing Daniel Sikkema, Richard Levitt, said his client “now as always maintains his innocence and looks forward to his complete vindication at trial”.
In a separate filing last month, the executor of Brent Sikkema’s estate, a man named James T.H. Deaver, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Daniel Sikkema in New York State Supreme Court. That complaint outlines in grim detail the circumstances of Brent Sikkema’s death and the alleged communications between Daniel Sikkema and Prevez leading up to and immediately following the killing—including that Prevez used money allegedly sent to him by Daniel Sikkema to purchase a crossbow that he initially planned to use in the murder, though he allegedly opted to use a kitchen knife. Deaver is seeking to recover losses and damages suffered by Brent Sikkema’s estate due to the murder, including support due to the couple’s minor son.
Brent Sikkema was born in 1948 and raised in Illinois. After attending the San Francisco Art Institute, he was hired as the exhibitions director at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York in 1971. He worked at Vision Gallery in Boston between 1976 and 1989. After relocating to New York City in 1981, he founded his own contemporary art gallery in Soho, then called Wooster Gardens.
The gallery moved to Chelsea in 1999 and later changed its name to Sikkema Jenkins & Co, with Michael Jenkins becoming a partner in 2003. The gallery now known as Sikkema Jenkins Malloy is one of New York’s most prominent galleries and has worked with artists including Jeffrey Gibson, Sheila Hicks, Vik Muniz, Kara Walker and Louis Fratino.
