The suspect arrested for the murder of New York City art gallery owner Brent Sikkema told Rio de Janeiro authorities that the billionaire’s estranged husband allegedly instructed him to carry out the killing, Brazilian network TV Globo revealed Friday.
Cuban national Alejandro Triana, 30, told investigators that Daniel Sikkema offered him $200,000 to kill the 75-year-old founder of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Triana is facing an intentional homicide charge. Authorities initially were investigating the incident as a robbery after they arrested him in possession of $30,000, but Triana told police that he never took anything for Brent Sikkema’s residence.
The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police and Public Ministry have filed an order with the state’s court seeking Daniel Sikkema’s arrest and have been in contact with the United States Department of Justice.
A Rio de Janeiro spokesperson confirmed in an email to DailyMail.com on Friday that the Capital Homicide Police Station completed its investigation Thursday and that Daniel Sikkema has been identified as being ‘intellectual and main author interested in crime.’
DailyMail.com reached out to the Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs and the New York Police Department for comment.
Alejandro Triana, of Cuba, told Rio de Janeiro authorities that he was offered $200,000 by Daniel Sikkema to murder his husband, New York City art gallery owner Brent Sikkema. Triana said he used a key that Daniel Sikkema allegedly mailed him from the United States to enter Brent Sikkema’s Rio de Janeiro home, where he stabbed him dead January 14
Brazilian authorities have filed a request with a Rio de Janeiro court to seek the arrest of Daniel Sikkema (left), the estranged husband of the late New York City art gallery owner Brent Sikkema
Triana told police that Daniel Sikkema did not agree with the amount of money that he was offered in the divorce settlement and that he was worried that Brent Sikkema’s relationship with ‘an Uruguayan or a Paraguayan’ man could impact how the couple’s assets would be split.
Triana, who met the couple in Cuba and worked for them as a handyman at their properties in the communist island, also told police that Daniel Sikkema was upset over Brent Sikkema spending ‘a lot of money on drugs, parties and prostitutes.
Surveillance camera footage obtained by DailyMail.com from Gabriel Security Company showed that Triana started monitoring Brent Sikkema’s home in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Jardim Botânico on January 13 around 2:30 pm.
He walked into the residence on January 14 at 3:43am with a key that Daniel Sikkema allegedly mailed him from the United States.
Triana could be seen exiting the home at 3:47am and removing gloves before he drove away.
Simone Nunes, a lawyer and friend of Brent Sikkema, who watched after the property while he was away from Brazil, discovered him dead January 15 after visiting the home because she was concerned he was not answering her phone calls and text messages.
Daniel Sikkema and Brent Sikkema with their son, who is now 12 years old
Brent Sikkema, who co-owned the contemporary art gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York told friends in Brazil was attempting to finalize a divorce with his husband Daniel Sikkema
An autopsy report showed Triana stabbed the Brent Sikkema 18 times, mostly in the neck and chest. He was arrested January 15 after police found him sleeping in a car in Ureaba, a city in the southern state of Minas Gerais, which borders Bolivia.
Triana initially told investigators that he was not involved in Brent Sikkema’s killing just days following his apprehension, but then confessed after he met with his defense team and the police in late January and noticed that the authorities had sufficient evidence linking him to the gruesome murder.
Brent Sikkema was born in Morrison, Illinois, and graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute.
He was the director of exhibitions at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester in 1971 and then served as the director of Vision Gallery in Boston from 1976 to 1980 and was its owner from 1980 to 1989.
New York City prominent art gallery owner Brent Sikkema with former First Lady Michelle Obama
Brent was seen on a security camera walking back to his Rio de Janeiro home on January 13 at 4:36pm before he was allegedly murdered by Cuban national Alejandro Triana
Alejandro Triana was captured on camera leaving the Rio de Janeiro home of New York City art gallery owner Brent Sikkema on January 14 at 3:57am. Sikkema was found dead January 15
He founded his art gallery in 1991 as Wooster Gardens in Soho. In 1999, the art gallery was moved to its current location in Chelsea.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo reported Brent Sikkema told friends that Rio de Janeiro was so safe he did not mind leaving the door unlocked.
But he confided he was disappointed his husband did not want to reach a cordial divorce because he was seeking $6million.
The art gallery owner’s friends told the news outlet Daniel Sikkema took out a court order that stopped him seeing their 12-year-old son.
Brent Sikkema reportedly spent one night in a New York City jail after he disobeyed the order.
