Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten, a famous Belgian noble, entrepreneur, philanthropist and art collector has died at the age of 90, according to reports from La Libre and Het Laatste Nieuws.
Guy Ullens was born in San Francisco in 1935 and spent forty years leading an industrial family business, transforming it into an international investment firm named Artal. He amassed considerable wealth in the late 1980s from the sale of Tiense Suiker, with his fortune once estimated at €3 billion.
In 2000, he retired and shifted his focus to ambitious philanthropic projects. Passionate about contemporary art, he amassed various collections and became a pioneer in discovering Chinese contemporary art in the 1990s. He collected around 1,500 works from artists such as Zeng Fanzhi and Huang Yong Ping.
The baron was married and had four children. His second wife, Myriam, whom he married in 1999, was shot dead in front of their home in Ohain by his son Nicolas in 2023. Nicolas fled but later turned himself in. The prosecutor stated the motive for the murder was a “family financial dispute.”
Nicolas Ullens de Schooten was released in October 2023 with an electronic ankle bracelet, awaiting trial. Baron Ullens declared himself a civil party in the case.
