The stepdaughter of a Belgian baroness who was shot dead by her own stepson on Wednesday accuses her of stealing the family’s wealth and “wanting their fortune for herself.”
The body of Baroness Myriam Ullens, 70, was found earlier this week outside her luxury residence in the south of Brussels after she had been shot dead with four bullets to the head.
Her stepson Nicolas Ullens, a former Belgian spy, confessed to killing the Baroness and wounding his billionaire father in the leg when he fired a total of nine shots.
Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten Whettnall, 88, was with his wife at the time but survived the attack in the village of Ohain.
But Brigitte Ullens, the sister of the known assailant, defended her brother, saying her stepmother “devastated the family” and “wanted everything for herself.”
Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten Whettnall (right) was with Baroness Myriam Ullens (left) at the time of the attack on Wednesday
Nicolas Ullens has now turned himself in to the police and confessed to the murder. He is charged with murder and weapons offenses
Speak against NewspaperBrigitte said despite confessing to killing her stepmother, her brother is “a very nice man.”
She said her brother finally snapped when it emerged that the Baroness had plans to sell the family home.
On Wednesday it exploded. Our family has been broken for years. Only one thing was important to Myriam: she wanted the family fortune for herself and we didn’t count.
“She even forbade Dad to keep in touch with us. In recent years, father’s mental condition deteriorated and she took advantage of that.
“She had just put the house up for sale. What was she going to do with the money? I don’t know, but I think she would have kept it to herself.’
Nicolas Ullens has now turned himself in to the police and confessed to the murder. He is charged with murder and weapons offenses.
He is expected to appear in court on Monday.
Prosecutors said Nicholas leaned in to shoot as part of his espionage training with the Belgian secret service. They said he rammed his stepmother’s VW Golf with his own car when she tried to drive down the driveway of their house in Ohain.
He then fired six bullets in the direction of the victim.
According to reports, the Baroness and her stepson were involved in protracted disputes over inheritance issues and he accused her of squandering his billionaire father’s money.
A representative of the Walloon Brabant judicial police said in a statement: ‘The suspect did not resist and explained that he had killed his stepmother.
“He had a gun with him, which has been confiscated. He has been deprived of his freedom.’
The 57-year-old suspect was heard on Thursday by an investigating judge, who placed him under arrest and charged him with murder and violation of the law on armed weapons.
The couple opened the Ullens Center in 2007 – considered the first contemporary art museum in China at the time
Baroness Myriam Ullens was shot dead by her stepson outside her home in the south of Brussels
Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten and Baroness Myriam Ullens de Schooten pose during the Don Quichotte Ballet
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 collecting classical Chinese art scroll paintings, before shifting their focus to contemporary art.
The couple opened the Ullens Center in 2007 – considered the first contemporary art museum in China at the time.
In 2004, Baroness Ullens, who was named Mimi and was a cancer patient, founded the Mimi Foundation to establish centers in hospitals to provide physical and mental therapy to patients undergoing cancer treatment.
In 2013 she co-organized an exhibition and benefit auction during Frieze Week in London in support of the Mimi Foundation.
‘If many of the artists in this project are Chinese, it’s because of our long and close relationship with them. This is just the tip of our iceberg, which we continue to monitor and collect intensively with the new generation,” said the Baroness. Ocula at the time.
‘A collection is like a living, breathing body. It evolves organically.’
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.
He spent his career in the Belgian security service in the Russian counterintelligence department.
“He was very haughty and sometimes boasted about his wealth,” said a former colleague of his The times.
“In state security you have to be discreet and diplomatic, but he wasn’t like that. He was a loud mouth. He learned to shoot with us.’