The estranged husband of a prominent Chelsea art dealer paid a pal at least $5,000 to stab the gallery owner to death in his bedroom in Brazil in a sordid murder-for-hire plot, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Daniel Carrera Sikkema, a 54-year-old former prostitute who married gallery owner Brent Sikkema in 2013, is now facing the death penalty in the high-profile slaying that rattled the Big Apple art world, the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said in a press release.
“In the midst of a tense divorce, Daniel Sikkema allegedly financed the premature death of his estranged husband,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy said in a statement.
“The defendant allegedly hired a hitman to facilitate the international murder of his husband, and attempted to conceal his involvement in this callous plan,” Dennehy said. “The FBI will continue to vigorously investigate any individual who selfishly and mercilessly orders the end to another’s life, regardless of where the crime may occur.”
According to the feds, Carrera hired the hit man — identified in reports as Cuban national Alejandro Triana Prevez — to sneak into Sikkema’s bedroom in his Rio de Janeiro apartment on Jan. 14, 2024 and stab the 75-year-old victim to death as they fought for custody of their young son.
Carrera made several secret payments to Prevez and the hit man’s lover, totaling $5,000 “and promised to make an additional payment at a later date,” federal prosecutors said.
However, the hired killer was picked up by Brazilian authorities just four days after the murder.
Once in custody, Prevez allegedly came clean on the murder plot and told police he stabbed the victim 18 times in his face, chest and throat after being hired by Carrera.
He allegedly told cops that Carrera gave him a key to Sikkema’s apartment in Rio and was seen on surveillance footage staking out the scene for 14 hours before the murder.
Carrera, who worked as a male prostitute in Havana and Madrid before hooking up with the wealthy dealer, stood to inherit Sikkema’s multi-million estate, but was in the midst of an ugly divorce.
He surrendered to police on April 14 and was charged with passport fraud — before being hit with the murder and conspiracy charges in a superseding indictment on Tuesday.
He is charged with one count of murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death, one count of conspiracy to murder and maim a person in a foreign country and one count of passport fraud, prosecutors said.
If convicted he faces life in prison or death, according to the feds.
Sikkema co-owned the Sikkema Jenkins Gallery in Chelsea and repped prominent artists like painter Kara Walker and photographer Vik Muniz before his death.
A familiar figure in city art circles, he rubbed elbows with Michelle Obama and other high-profile figures.
His marriage to Carrera began to dissolve in 2022 and lapsed into a bitter legal battle. He disinherited his former paramour in May 2022 and left money to another lover in his will.
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