Billionaire widow of murdered Belgian baroness attends funeral
Billionaire widow of murdered Belgian baroness Myriam Ullens joins grieving relatives at her funeral days after suing his own son for ‘shooting her dead’
- ‘Mimi’ Ullens was with her husband Guy Ullens when she was killed last week
- Prosecutors suspect Guy’s son Nicolas of being behind the deadly shooting
The billionaire widower of a murdered baroness has filed a lawsuit against his own son – as he attended his slain wife’s funeral on Friday – in the latest twist to a Belgian case involving an aristocratic family feud.
Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens, 70, was with her husband, Baron and mega-collector Guy Ullens, 88, when she was killed in the village of Ohain. The alleged shooter was Nicolas Ullens, the son of Guy Ullens, who has since been detained by police.
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 reports at the time.
Baron Ullens, who survived the incident on March 29, is now suing his son Nicolas who prosecutors believed carried out the killing over a financial dispute.
But even as the funeral for ‘Mimi’ Ullens was held on Friday, the ignominious family feud continued to play out in the public eye, with Nicolas’s sister Brigitte backing her suspect brother – telling local media that their stepmother ‘plagued the family’.
Guy Ullens – the widower of a murdered baroness – has filed a lawsuit against his own son in the latest twist to a Belgian case involving an aristocratic family feud. News of the lawsuit came as he attended the funeral of his late wife on Friday (pictured)
Pictured: Guests arrive for the funeral of Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens who was killed last week
Pictured: Flower wreaths for Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens outside the church for her funeral today
Pictured: Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens, 70, was with her husband, Baron and mega-collector Guy Ullens, 88. The couple opened the Ullens center in 2007 – considered at the time to be the first contemporary art museum in China
Prosecutors are understood to believe the motivation for the killing of Mimi was financial, amid reports that she had been trying to block Nicolas and his sister’s inheritance that would come from their elderly father.
READ MORE: How an aristocratic family feud led to murder: Baroness who met King Charles and skied with royals was ‘gunned down by disgraced ex-spy stepson’
According to reports, the baroness and her stepson had been in long-running disputes over the issue, which allegedly came to the fore last week.
Pictures on Friday showed guests arriving for the funeral of Mimi, held at a church in Ohain, Belgium. Relatives and friends attending to pay their respects included fashion designers, business people and bankers.
Flowers were laid outside the church, including one wreath from Claude Lelouch – the critically acclaimed French film director.
Originally a cake-maker from Cologne, Mini lived an extraordinary life, falling in love with a married nobleman, brushing shoulders with the world’s royals – including Britain’s King Charles III – and funding passion projects around the world.
But last Wednesday, she was executed in front of her house, shot four times in the head, reportedly after an argument with her stepson over ‘squandering his billionaire father’s money’.
Reports say Nicolas, 57, ambushed Myriam and her husband, ramming them in their car as they left the family estate and firing multiple shots in their direction.
The next day, he walked into a police station, handed over a handgun and told police he had shot his stepmother, it is understood.
But not everyone showed sympathy towards the murdered Mini.
‘Mimi devastated the family,’ was the initial reaction Brigitte after the killing. ‘She wanted everything for herself. We weren’t even allowed to see dad any more.’
‘Only one thing mattered to Myriam: she wanted the family fortune for herself.’
Nicolas Ullens, a former Belgian state security officer, is one of the baron’s four children with his first wife, Micheline Franckx.
Now, according to local reports, Guy Ullens has sued Nicolas over the alleged assassination of his late with.
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. ‘A collection is like a living breathing body. It evolves in an organic manner.’
The baroness Ullens was born in Colgone, Germany, in 1952.
Relatives and friends arrive for the funeral ceremony for the 70 year old Baroness Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens de Schooten Whettnall on Friday in Ohain
Maurice Lippens, Belgian businessman and banker, (right) attends the funeral ceremony
Pictured: Guests arrive for the funeral of Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens who was killed last week
Fashion designer Edouard Vermeulen arrives for the funeral ceremony for the 70 year old Baroness Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens de Schooten Whettnall, on Friday
Pictured: A wreath is carried into the church at Mimi’s funeral on Friday
Relatives and friends arrive for the funeral ceremony for the 70 year old Baroness Myriam ‘Mimi’ Ullens, who was shot dead last Wednesday. It is believed that she was killed by her son
Myriam (L), with husband, totes a Maison Ullens bag of her own Belgian women’s fashion label
Nicolas Ullens surrendered himself to police after shooting his stepmother last week
Nicolas Ullens, meanwhile, was a former Belgian state security officer.
He spent his career working in Belgium’s security service in the Russian counter-espionage department.
‘He was very haughty and sometimes boasted about his wealth,’ a former colleague of his told The Times.
‘In state security you have to be discreet and diplomatic, but he was not like that. He was a loudmouth. He learnt to shoot with us.’
Source: Read Full Article