Suspect Arrested in Connection with Death of New York Dealer Brent Sikkema

A suspect was arrested by Brazilian police as part of their investigation into the death of the well-regarded New York dealer Brent Sikkema this week.

On Monday, the 75-year-old dealer was found dead in his Rio de Janeiro apartment with stab wounds. His death has shaken the New York art scene, where the gallery that he founded, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., is closely watched.

Among the artists that Sikkema Jenkins & Co. has shown over the years are Kara Walker, Jeffrey Gibson, Amy Sillman, Mark Bradford, Vik Muniz, and Jennifer Packer.

TV Globo, Brazil’s top television network, reported on Thursday that police detained a 30-year-old Cuban man named Alejandro Triana Trevez, who had been in Rio de Janeiro using a car borrowed from a friend in São Paulo. Local police said that the car contained money that was stolen from Sikkema, as well as a gold chain that was also taken from the dealer. Having taken the money, the suspect is thought to have used some of it to purchase a car upon his return to São Paulo.

The details of Sikkema’s death remain unclear, but Brazilian publications have begun to seize on the details of the dealer’s personal life.

Folha de São Paulo published a report that explored the divorce that Sikkema was going through. Unnamed sources in New York were cited in the article, which claimed that Sikkema’s husband, who is Cuban, sought $6 million from him and did not want him to see his 12-year-old son, according to Folha de São Paulo.

Security video footage of Sikkema’s apartment around the time of his death has also appeared in the Brazilian media. The footage seems to show a man entering Sikkema’s apartment early on Sunday morning, entering and exiting with relative ease. He is shown wearing gloves, a detail that some have pored over because it is the summer in Brazil right now.

Sikkema Jenkins & Co. had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.