In the days before he was brutally stabbed to death in his Rio de Janeiro home last month, Manhattan art dealer Brent Sikkema had fallen in love with a younger man, The Post has learned.
The disclosure was included in a Rio Civil Police filing obtained by The Post.
“In the passenger seat of the car, Brent spoke in a video chat with a man who spoke halting English,” read the report, which summarized the witness statement of Luiz Otavio Martins, Sikkema’s longtime driver in Rio. “The driver can see the young man in the video call. He was dark and very handsome, and Brent told him ‘I love you’ in English.”
During his last conversation with Martins, Brent told his driver he was going on a date, the report said, adding that Brent frequented the Rio bathhouse to pick up young male prostitutes.
“He prefers them young,” the Rio police report said. “The driver told Brent not to bring prostitutes to his apartment because it was too dangerous. Brent told the driver that he had met a man before Christmas and was madly in love.”
Art dealer Brent Sikkema loves opera and other high culture activities – and represents famous artists like Kara Walker (above) – but also has a secret life. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images The Post obtained a police report that includes the witness statements of those who last saw Brent Sikkema alive. Above is a mug shot of Alejandro Triana Prevez, the suspect in the brutal murder. Brazilian Court of Appeal
The art dealer dismissed the driver’s warning and joked that he needed a guard dog more than he needed a lover, the report said.
The identity of the man who spoke to Brent in the video call is unknown.
Sikkema represented Walker’s famous artist for many years. Billy Farrell/BFA/Shutterstock Sikkema rubs elbows with high-profile figures including Michelle Obama. Instagram/Brent Sikkema
Brent, principal at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery in Chelsea, represents high-profile artists Vik Muniz and Kara Walker, among others. She was a frequent visitor to Rio de Janeiro where she went there in December 2023 to spend Christmas without her estranged husband and teenage son, according to police reports.
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On January 15, five days after the conversation overheard by his driver, Sikkema was found dead in the bedroom of his penitentiary with multiple stab wounds to his throat and chest.
Brent Sikkema was found stabbed to death in the bedroom of his Rio de Janeiro row house on January 15. AP A diagram from a Brazilian police report shows the location of Sikkema’s stab wounds. Brazilian Court of Appeal
Police arrested Alejandro Triana Prevez – a 30-year-old Cuban who knew Sikkema and her estranged husband, Cuban-born Daniel Sikkema – days after the murder.
Daniel, 53, who said in a Spanish-language memoir that he worked as a prostitute in Havana and Madrid before meeting Brent more than 15 years ago, had hired the suspect to work as a security guard at one of the couple’s three homes. owned in Cuba, according to Rio police.
The Cuban suspect in Sikkema’s murder knew both Brent Sikkema and her Cuban-born estranged husband, Daniel. Reuters
The Sikkemas were involved in a nearly two-year divorce action in New York State Supreme Court before Brent’s death. The divorce, initiated by Daniel, had not been finalized at the time of Brent’s death, according to public documents.
Rio police told reporters last month that Daniel had demanded more than $6 million in payment to allow Brent to see their 14-year-old son, who was born in California via surrogate, according to social media posts. But court records show that custody was settled in May, 2023. Court records also show that a restraining order was filed in May 2022, two months after the divorce was filed, but it’s unclear which party filed it.
Daniel Sikkema (above, with the Sikkemas’ son) is fighting a bitter custody battle with his estranged husband in Manhattan. The divorce was not finalized when Brent was killed in Brazil. Brent Sikkema/ Instagram
Daniel Sikkema declined to comment when contacted on his cell phone Tuesday. He was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Sikkema was due to return to New York City on January 16 – the day after she was found dead – and had made plans with Martins to settle her account for a month’s work in Rio the day before her flight, the police report said. .
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
