Jury Convicts Daniel Sikkema in Killing of New York Dealer Brent Sikkema
Daniel Sikkema was convicted Friday in a Manhattan federal court for his role in a murder-for-hire plot that prosecutors said led to the 2024 killing of New York art dealer Brent Sikkema in Rio de Janeiro. Brent Sikkema, founder of the Chelsea gallery formerly known as Sikkema Jenkins & Co., was found stabbed to death at age 75 in his Rio townhouse on January 14, 2024, after being stabbed 18 times while asleep, according to trial testimony. Prosecutors said Daniel Sikkema hired Alejandro Triana Prevez, a Cuban former security officer living in Brazil, and secretly transferred roughly $9,000 to him before and after the killing; the defense argued the payments were for unrelated past work. Jurors convicted Daniel Sikkema on three counts related to conspiring to hire and pay a hitman, and he now faces a mandatory life sentence, with sentencing not yet scheduled.
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This story was covered in Auction Fever, Museums in the Crossfire