Bathhouses and a new ‘boyfriend’: Inside the last days of NYC art dealer murdered in Brazil after secret life revealed
NY Post
In the days before he was brutally stabbed to death at his home in Rio de Janeiro last month, Manhattan art dealer Brent Sikkema had fallen madly in love with a younger man, The Post has learned.
The revelation was included in a Rio Civil Police filing obtained by The Post.
“In the passenger seat of the car, Brent spoke on a video chat with a man who spoke halting English,” reads the report, which summarizes the witness statement of Luiz Otavio Martins, Sikkema’s longtime driver in Rio. “The driver could see the young man on the video call. He was dark skinned and very handsome, and Brent told him ‘I love you’ in English.”
During what would be his last conversation with Martins, Brent told his driver that he was going on a date, the report reads, adding that Brent regularly frequented Rio bath houses to pick up young male prostitutes.
“He preferred them young,” said the Rio police report. “The driver told Brent not to bring prostitutes to his apartment because it was too dangerous. Brent told the driver that he had met a guy before Christmas and was madly in love.”
The art dealer shrugged off the driver’s warnings and joked that he needed a guard dog more than he needed a lover, the report said
