Renowned New York City art dealer Brent Sikkema was fatally stabbed while in Brazil. The suspected perpetrator was apprehended at a gas station.
Police announced on Thursday that they had apprehended a suspect in the violent murder of a well-known American art dealer in Brazil. Brent Sikkema, 75, who co-owned a prominent gallery in Manhattan, was discovered on Monday with 18 stab wounds in his apartment in Rio de Janeiro.
The police in Rio state apprehended an individual known as Alejandro Triana Trevez near the town of Uberaba, located in the nearby state of Minas Gerais. According to reports from local media, the man is of Cuban nationality and had been evading authorities before being discovered resting at a gas station.
WILL RAGOZZINO/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
According to authorities, Trevez is accused of stealing $3,000 from Sikkema’s residence. Detective Felipe Curi, head of the state police homicide unit, stated to CBN Rio that the primary focus of the investigation is determining if the theft ultimately led to the homicide.
According to its website, the gallery officially announced that the dealer has passed away.
The gallery has announced the unfortunate news of our dear founder, Brent Sikkema’s passing. The gallery is deeply saddened by this significant loss and will carry on in his memory.
In 1971, Sikkema started working at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York as the director of exhibitions. Later, in 1976, he opened his first gallery in Boston.
In 2021, while visiting Zurich, Switzerland, Sikkema referred to himself as a “disorganized individual” on Instagram and expressed a preference for traveling to Brazil and Cuba.
“I am surprised,” Yancey Richardson, a close friend and owner of a neighboring art gallery, stated to the New York Times following Sikkema’s passing. “Brent had a great sense of discernment and was not confined to traditional methods. He was not simply curating one exhibition after another.”
In 2022, Sikkema informed IdeaFix that he primarily resided in New York for the majority of the year, but referred to his Rio de Janeiro apartment as an urban “oasis.”
Source: cbsnews.com