Daniel Sikkema, the ex-husband of the New York art dealer Brent Sikkema, who is embroiled in allegations that he orchestrated his former partner’s murder in Brazil earlier this year, was arrested in New York on Wednesday, March 20 for alleged passport fraud.
According to a media spokesperson for the Southern District Court of New York reached by Hyperallergic, a federal judge ruled that he could be released upon signing a bail bond and would then be fitted with an ankle monitor. According to InnerCity Press, Sikkema allegedly applied for a new passport for himself and his son, reporting the old passports lost despite knowing that the documents were actually being held up by the executor of Brent Sikkema’s estate. His defense argued that the passports were needed for his son’s soccer trip to Italy.
A $1 million personal recognizance bond was set for Daniel Sikkema’s release. His lawyer in the United States, Richard Levitt, declined to comment for this story.
Brazilian prosecutors have been pursuing Daniel Sikkema (né Daniel García Carrera) in the wake of the murder of Brent Sikkema, the founder of Manhattan’s Sikkema Jenkins & Company gallery who was stabbed numerous times at his residence in Rio de Janeiro on January 14. After examining video surveillance footage from outside the art dealer’s residence on the night of his death, Brazilian police arrested 30-year-old suspect Alejandro Triana Prevez in connection with the crime on January 18.
Prevez, who worked for Daniel and Brent Sikemma as security in Cuba, confessed to the crime in an interrogation but claimed that Daniel Sikemma had hired him to do it for roughly $200,000.
He also alleged that Daniel Sikkema had sent him a key to access Brent Sikkema’s residence in the city’s Jardim Botânico neighborhood. Police said in a report that they found a selfie Prevez had taken in Sikkema’s kitchen. The investigation also confirmed phone calls between Prevez and Daniel Sikkema using a burner phone. An order for Daniel Sikkema’s arrest was issued by Rio de Janeiro judge Tula Corrêa de Mello on February 10 and then sent to Interpol.
Fabiana Marques, one of Daniel Sikkema’s attorneys, told Hyperallergic in February that Trevez’s accusations against her client were false and aimed at “securing a more lenient sentence.”
In an audio message to Hyperallergic, Gregorio Andrade, one of Prevez’s lawyers, expressed his indignation that Daniel Sikkema was not arrested earlier and that he could soon be released on bail.
“It’s absurd that a man for whom a judge in Rio de Janeiro ordered an arrest warrant could be freed,” Andrade said. “It’s unthinkable that the arrest was carried out in this way, given the gravity of the crime, and given that the suspect might even be trying to leave the country.”
Valentina Di Liscia contributed reporting.
