Pioneering Collector and Chinese Art Patron Myriam Ullens Has Died in a Shocking Incident Outside Her Home in Belgium

Myriam Ullens de Schooten, a preeminent collector, was shot dead yesterday in front of the house she shared with her husband, Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten. Both are major collectors of Chinese art and respected in the art world as the founders of UCCA in Beijing, China.

The murder occurred at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 29. Local media have reported that Ullens suffered four bullets to the head, and had died by the time emergency services arrived to the family home in the Belgian village of Ohain.

The stepson of the 70-year-old German baroness is reportedly a prime suspect. The 50-year-old Nicolas Ullens de Schooten, a former state security agent and one of four children of Guy Ullens, is suspected of shooting his stepmother while she was in a car with his father, who survived the attack. He has been taken into custody for questioning. Local authorities did not immediately respond to Artnet News’s request for further information.

According to some Belgian reports, the victim and suspect were in an open dispute over an inheritance issue.

The news sent a shock through the art industry. “The vision and passion of Myriam Ullens—her love for art, belief in cultural exchange, and commitment to helping others—are at the core of UCCA’s history and values,” said Philip Tinari, UCCA’s director, in a statement shared on social media. “We are shocked and saddened by her death, and will remember her strength, style, creativity, and generosity as we carry forward the work of the institution that she and Guy so generously founded and nurtured through its first decade.”

Born in Cologne in 1952, Myriam, known to friends and acquaintances as “Mimi” Ullens, was an active philanthropist who initiated an education program and school in Nepal. A cancer survivor, Ullens also launched The Mimi Foundation, which was active in wards at eight hospitals in Belgium, France, and Switzerland, providing support to patients going through cancer treatment.

Myriam and Guy Ullens married in 1999 and built out an evolving collection focused on art from China, beginning at first with classical Chinese scroll painting before focusing on contemporary art from China. Their “universal” collection, as it is described on their Swiss foundation’s website, includes works by prominent Chinese artists including Huang Yong Ping, Wang Jianwei, Xu Zhen, together with Western art stars like Rashid Johnson, Sterling Ruby, and Tracey Emin; another area of focus in their collection was digital art.

They opened the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in 2007 to exhibit their collection that numbers around 2,000 artworks; the institution was one of the first of its kind in China. In 2017, the couple sold the museum to a group of patrons and shareholders and it was renamed the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. They continued to be involved and served on the foundation council, while actively collecting via their Fondation Guy & Myriam Ullens, based in Switzerland.

Myriam was also actively involved in luxury brand Maison Ullens, which she founded in 2011. The family is of Belgian nobility; Guy Ullens is a philanthropist as well as a financial services company executive who has been collecting art since the 1960s.