Belgian baroness is shot dead in front of her husband by stepson

Belgian baroness is shot dead in front of her husband ‘by stepson who she had been in long-running dispute with over inheritance’

• Baroness Myriam Ullens, 70, was shot dead in the village of Ohain, near Brussels, reportedly over an issue of inheritance
• The suspect, Nicolas Ullens, has since been detained by police 

An art collector has been shot dead, allegedly by her stepson outside her home in the south of Brussels. 

Baroness Myriam Ullens, 70, was with her husband, Baron Guy Ullens, 88, when she was killed in the village of Ohain, allegedly by Nicolas Ullens, who has since been detained by police. 

Baron Ullens reportedly survived the incident on March 29.

The pair were in their car outside their home at around 10am when Nicolas allegedly fired on his stepmother, who died at the scene, according to La Libre. 

According to reports, the baroness and her stepson had been in long-running disputes over issues of inheritance. 

Baroness Myriam Ullens was shot dead, allegedly by her stepson outside her home in the south of Brussels today

Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten and Baroness Myriam Ullens de Schooten pose during the Don Quichotte Ballet

Baroness Myriam Ullens, 70, was with her husband, Baron Guy Ullens, 88, when she was killed in the village of Ohain, allegedly by Nicolas Ullens (pictured), who has since been detained by police

The baron and baroness – who opened the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing – married in 1999, and have been influential art collectors ever since. 

They began their career by collecting classical Chinese art scroll paintings, before switching their attention to contemporary art. 

The couple opened the Ullens center in 2007 – considered at the time to be the first contemporary art museum in China. 

In 2004, baroness Ullens, who went by Mimi and was a cancer survivor, founded the Mimi Foundation to create centers within hospitals to provide physical and mental therapy for patients undergoing cancer treatment. 

In 2013 she co-organised an exhibition and benefit auction during Frieze Week in London to support the Mimi Foundation.

‘If many of the artists in this project are Chinese that is because of our long and close relationship with them. This is just the tip of our iceberg—that we are continuing to follow and collect intensively with the new generation,’ the baroness told Ocula at the time.

The couple opened the Ullens center in 2007 – considered at the time to be the first contemporary art museum in China

‘A collection is like a living breathing body. It evolves in an organic manner.’

The baroness Ullens was born in Colgone, Germany, in 1952. 

Nicolas Ullens, a former Belgian state security officer, is one of the baron’s four children with his first wife, Micheline Franckx. 

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