One of the four people killed by a gunman who opened fire inside 345 Park Avenue in New York City on Monday (28 July) was Wesley LePatner, a senior managing director in the real estate division at the investment firm Blackstone and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. LePatner, who was 43, had been elected to the Met’s board in February.
"We are heartbroken by the tragic death of Met trustee Wesley LePatner, who was a brilliant and visionary leader, a generous spirit and a person of deep intellect and warmth," Max Hollein, the Met’s director and chief executive, said in a statement shared with The Art Newspaper. "Wesley's extraordinary professional accomplishments were matched by her commitment to education, culture, and community, and we were honoured to welcome her to the Met family earlier this year. Wesley jumped into action as a trustee, joining the investment committee and the visiting committee for European Paintings, and was looking forward to deepening her engagement with the museum by expanding her support to education and joining the visiting committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts this upcoming fall. Our hearts are with Wesley’s loved ones, especially her husband, Evan, their two children, and her parents, Ellyn and Lawrence, and with her colleagues at Blackstone. This senseless act of violence also claimed the lives of several other innocent people, including courageous members of the NYPD and security staff. We honour their memory and extend our heartfelt condolences to all those affected by this terrible loss."
In addition to serving on the museum’s board, LePatner had been a member of its Friends of European Painting group, which supports programming and acquisitions by the museum’s Department of European Paintings. Members of that friend group contribute $10,000 in annual dues. “Wesley’s deep expertise and knowledge will be an invaluable addition to the board,” the co-chairs of the board of trustees, Candace K. Beinecke and Hamilton E. James, said in a statement at the time of her election.
In addition to her support of the Met, LePatner served on the boards of a number of Jewish organisations and the library council at Yale University, her alma mater, where she majored in history. According to her biography on the Blackstone website, she joined the firm in 2014 following more than a decade of working at Goldman Sachs.
“She was the most loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and relative, who enriched our lives in every way imaginable,” a statement released by the LePatner family and quoted by The New York Times reads in part. “To so many others, she was a beloved, fiercely loyal and caring friend, and a driven and extraordinarily talented professional and colleague.”
The suspect in Monday’s shooting, Las Vegas resident Shane Devon Tamura, was reportedly targeting the offices of the National Football League, whose headquarters, like Blackstone’s, are located at 345 Park Avenue. According to a note found in his wallet after he fatally shot himself in the chest, Tamura believed he was suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease.
Studies have found that playing American football, as Tamura had done in high school, increases the risk of CTE, which can result in brain damage similar to that caused by Alzheimer’s and in some cases leads to dementia and death. The disease can only be diagnosed by studying the brain after death.
