A suspect has been arrested in the death of a prominent New York art dealer who was stabbed 18 times in Brazil

Rio de Janeiro – Brazilian police announced on Thursday the arrest of a suspect in the brutal murder of an American art dealer who owned a prominent art gallery in Manhattan, Brazil.

Brent Sikkema, 75 years old He was found dead Monday with 18 stab wounds in his apartment in Rio de Janeiro.

Rio state police arrested a man identified as Alejandro Triana Trevez near the city of Uberaba in neighboring Minas Gerais state. The man, who local media say is Cuban, was on the run and was found resting at a gas station.

Police said Trevez took $3,000 from Sikkema's home. Detective Felipe Corey, who leads the state police's homicide unit, told CBN Rio that the main line of investigation is robbery leading to murder.

“The preliminary results of our investigations indicate that Alejandro (Trevez) came from São Paulo specifically to commit this crime,” Corey said. He then returned to São Paulo, leading investigators to believe he had “some sort of confidential information.”

Law enforcement obtained a 30-day jail warrant against Trevez, which Corey said will allow them to explore other leads and answer questions such as whether the two men knew each other.

Originally founded in 1991, Sikkema Jenkins & Co. showcases the work of Jeffrey Gibson, Arturo Herrera, Sheila Hicks, Vic Muniz, Kara Walker and other artists on New York's 22nd Street near Chelsea Pierce.

Sikkema began his career in 1971 at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York, where he worked as exhibition director. 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 an “anarchist kind of guy” and said that Brazil and Cuba were his favorite destinations.