Murdered gallery owner changed will and excluded ex-husband, accused of ordering the crime

American gallerist Brent Sikkema, 75 years old, murdered on January 15th, in his home, in Jardim Botânico, in Rio de Janeiro, excluded his ex-husband Daniel Garcia Carrera, accused of being the mastermind of the crime, from his will. The exclusion, revealed by Fantástico, was confirmed by Estadão. Owner of a fortune that includes real estate in the United States, Cuba and Brazil, Brent was killed by Cuban Alejandro Triana Prevez, who is in prison. According to the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, Alejandro named Daniel Carrera, who is Cuban and a naturalized American, as an accomplice and mastermind of the crime.

Daniel's exclusion from the will took place in May 2022 and led the ex-husband to file a divorce action against Brent in the New York County Supreme Court. The process is under judicial secrecy, but the Estadão had access to movement. The addition of the will to the process was registered on May 2nd. The two had been married since December 1993, but there had been a de facto separation since January 2022.

According to the testimony given to the Civil Police by Simone Silveira Nunes, a lawyer who took care of the gallerist and her ex-husband's business in Brazil, after the de facto separation, Brent changed the will, placing all of his assets, which were in Daniel's name , for the minor child. She revealed that the gallerist had two wills, one drawn up in New York, and the other related only to assets in Brazil. As soon as Brent changed the will, he sent her a copy.

According to the lawyer's statements, Brent left the assets in the name of his minor son with some reservations, such as that he will only dispose of the assets when he turns 30 years old. Daniel still has custody of the child. Brent also had two houses in Cuba, one in Havana and one in Varadero. One of these properties, according to the lawyer, was placed in the name of Daniel's aunt. Until the divorce petition was filed, the ex-husband signed Daniel Sikkema.

According to the complaint from the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro, Alejandro had worked for the couple – Brent and Daniel – when he still lived in Cuba. When he emigrated to Brazil, in 2022, he was unemployed and was hired by Daniel to kill his former boss. He started to receive financial assistance, which reached 1,800 dollars, and was promised to receive 200,000 dollars after the agreement was carried out.

On the night of the crime, Alejandro went to Brent's house, made sure the American was alone and, using the keys provided by Daniel, broke into the property. The Cuban used a knife taken from a cutlery in the kitchen to kill the gallerist in his bed, with several stab wounds. Then, he washed the weapon and replaced it in the cutlery. Before leaving the house, he stole 40 thousand dollars and 30 thousand reais that were on a dresser.

Alejandro was arrested on January 18, in Minas Gerais. On the 10th, judge Tula Corrêa de Mello, from the 3rd Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro, converted his temporary arrest into preventative and decreed the arrest of Daniel Sikkema, accepting the MP's complaint that he would be the “ intellectual author and main interested party in the crime”. The judge also ordered that Daniel's arrest warrant be forwarded to Interpol's Red Diffusion, as the accused is abroad.

Alejandro's lawyer, Gregório Andrade, told the Estadão that the change in the will would have been the motivation for the crime. “There was a change in the will and that was why Daniel filed a divorce action. Brent left R$1 million to his ex-husband before Daniel and the rest to his son. He excluded Daniel and that’s why he planned the crime there in the United States and manipulated my client here.”

According to the defender, Alejandro was promised US$200,000 (just under R$1 million) to kill Brent. “There was a promise, but he never received it. It was 200 thousand dollars that he was going to receive and he was tempted by that.” According to the lawyer, Brent had been having a disagreement with Daniel and had ordered the lock on the door of the house in Rio to be changed. “It is necessary to clarify how Daniel received the new key there in the United States to give access to my client. We are going to ask for a confrontation (face to face) between the two, and also for the reconstruction of the crime.”

The report contacted Daniel's lawyers, Jane Pearl and Marilyn Sugarman in the United States and is awaiting a response. He also reached out to Brent's lawyers, Veronica Kapka and Aimee Richter, but they have not yet commented.

Brent owned Sikkema Jenkins & Co, one of New York's most famous art galleries. He founded the company in 1991, initially on Wooster Street in SoHo. In 1999, the gallery moved to its current location at 530 West 22nd Street.

Brent began working in art exhibitions and served as Director of Exhibitions at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester. In 1976, Brent opened his first gallery. Sikkema Jenkins is also dedicated to exhibiting photos, sculptures and installations. Among the names present in the gallery are the renowned Vik Muniz, Arturo Herrera, Sheila Hicks and Jeffrey Gibson.