Said Myriam Ullens — "a pastry chef who married a billionaire Belgian aristocrat and turned his fortune into a globe-spanning source of philanthropy" — about the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, "the first international-standard museum in China dedicated to contemporary art."
She is quoted in "Myriam Ullens, 70, Philanthropic Baroness, Is Killed/A stepson was held on charges of shooting her over family money. She started institutions in Belgium, Nepal and China, including a major museum in Beijing" (NYT).
The stepson turned himself in, and the police "proceeded to the home of Ms. Ullens and her husband, Guy Ullens, where they found her dead in a Volkswagen and Mr. Ullens beside her, in a state of shock, with a wounded leg."
She'd said of her husband, "He is my Pygmalion, the man whom I love and who made me break out of my shell."
The highest-rated comment over there takes issue with this sentence: "Ms. Ullens’s death was a sordid end to a life that had seemed like a fairy tale, or at least a fairy tale in the age of global capitalism." The commenter writes:
I’m taken aback by the writer’s description of this woman’s death as “a sordid end”. She was murdered sitting in a car with her husband, not found dead by overdosing in a back alley or engaged in any “unsavory” act of her own volition.
The phraseology used casts shade on the victim rather than the perpetrator.
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5 comments:
A tale of two trophy wives. If I were bidding for the screen rights, I would definitely make the higher offer for Myriam's story over that of Melania.....Myriam parlayed ordinary good looks and a talent for making pastries into an enviable marriage. Melania is to some extent a standard issue trophy wife. She has played her hand well, but she was dealt some high cards. Myriam's story is more compelling, plus it's got a tragic ending. Stories that feature the unhappiness and untimely deaths of rich people serve a high moral purpose.....Melania seems more inscrutable than unhappy so there's no real moral to her story. Of course, if Don Jr. should happen to shoot her, then all bets are off.
Can't read the article but what happened in 1989 to drive art, in Belgium? underground?
In the USSR it was underground up until 1989. John McPhee even wrote a book about it. But in 1989 it loosened up in Russia and East Germany.
The post doesn't make sense. Could someone with access to the article please explain.
John Henry
The private underbelly of non-profit consciousness is the tale of a third-world state in progress.
What is it with women who come into great wealth through no agency of their own, and proceed to do stupid things with it?
See Steve Jobs widow as exhibit A.
She's a multi-billionaire who did fuck all to get the money, and now showers it on far-left causes.
Hey John Henry,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre
Chinese communists crushed the uprising against communist corruption and everyone in China started keeping their heads down or getting re-educated, often to death. This might maybe just perhaps be the reason for the museum in Beijing to have self-censorship as a response.
I like to think of 1989 in China as being similar to Hungary in the 50s, or Prague in 68. Just a generation away from throwing off the yoke of communist totalitarian oppression. Of course, China is now overdue for that event.
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