Husband of Gallerist Brent Sikkema Found Guilty of Ordering His Killing
7May 26, 2026
A federal jury in Manhattan on May 22found Daniel Sikkema guiltyof hiring a hit man to kill his estranged husband, esteemed New York galleristBrent Sikkema. The divorcing couple had been involved in a bitter custody fight over their teenage son.
The ruling brings to a close a case that has gripped the art world since January 2024, when Brent Sikkema was brutally stabbed to death with a kitchen knife while he slept in his Rio de Janeiro vacation home. A subsequent manhunt resulted in the capture of Cuban national Alejandro Triana Trevez at a gas station in Brazil, some six hundred miles away. Trevez, who had previously been employed by the Sikkemas as a security guard, told authorities that Daniel Sikkema had paid him to kill the gallerist. According toNBC News, it was discovered that Daniel had paid Trevez more than $10,000 and had told friends that he would get more from his husband’s death than he would have from the divorce. Daniel denied culpability, claiming that the funds supplied to Trevez had been for back pay performed while the couple were in Cuba.
Brent Sikkema was the founder and co-owner of noted contemporary art gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (now Sikkema Malloy Jenkins), which gave Kara Walker her first-ever New York show and helped to launch the careers of artists including Mark Bradford, Jeffrey Gibson, Deana Lawson, Vik Muniz, Arlene Shechet, Shahzia Sikander, and Amy Sillman. At the time of the dealer’s death, Gibson had just been chosen to represent the US in the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Daniel Sikkema, born Daniel García Carrera in Cuba, is a onetime escort and the author of the 2006 autobiography Ticket to Paradise. He has said he will appeal the conviction, which carries a mandatory life sentence.