Estranged husband convicted of hiring hitman to k!ll his American art dealer spouse in Brazil

The estranged husband of a prominent New York City art dealer was convicted Friday of hiring a hitman to k!ll him in Brazil. 

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Daniel Sikkema, 55, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. 
 

Daniel Sikkema 

Brent Sikkema, 75, was found stabbed to de@th in his Rio de Janeiro townhouse in January 2024. 
 

Victim Brent Sikkema 

Daniel Sikkema, a U.S. and Cuban citizen who lived in New York, was arrested in April 2024. He was convicted in federal court in Manhattan of charges including murd£r-for-hire conspiracy resulting in d£ath. 

The alleged hitman was arrested in Brazil, where he remains jailed. 
 

The alleged hitman 

“Amid contentious divorce proceedings with his then-husband, Daniel Sikkema used a burner phone line to callously order the k!lling of his husband,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said. 

Clayton described Brent Sikkema’s k!lling as a “senseless, cold-blooded murd£r” and said the verdict brings a “meaningful measure of justice.” 
 

The house where Brent Sikkema was k!lled

Daniel Sikkema’s lawyer, Florian Miedel, said they were disappointed in the verdict and plan to appeal. 

“Daniel is staying strong and hopes to be vindicated in the end,” Miedel said. 

Daniel Sikkema was in frequent contact with the alleged hitman before and after the k!lling, prosecutors said. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Pavlis told the jury in an opening statement that Daniel Sikkema had funneled over $10,000 to the man and promised him more money. 

At the same time, Pavlis said, Daniel Sikkema bragged to others that he was going to get more money from his spouse’s d£ath than he would have gotten from a divorce. He and Brent Sikkema had a teenage son.

“After his husband was brutally k!lled, the defendant tried to cover his tracks and cash in,” Pavlis said. 

Miedel told the jury in an opening statement that case was built on circumstantial evidence and that there was no evidence to prove the guilt of his client. 

“Life is messy. The truth is not always obvious,” Miedel said. 

Brent Sikkema had amassed a multimillion-dollar estate and owned a Manhattan contemporary art gallery that became Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, which says on its website that it has represented international artists like Kara Walker, Vik Muniz and Arturo Herrera for nearly 30 years. 
 

Michelle Obama with Brent Sikkema 

He began his career in 1971 at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York, where he worked as director of exhibitions. He opened his first gallery in 1976 in Boston. 

In 2021, during a trip to the Swiss city of Zurich, Sikkema described himself on Instagram as a “chaos kind of guy” and said Brazil and Cuba were his preferred type of destination.