Martin Roth, the art historian and former director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, has died at the age of 62 following a serious illness.
Roth, who ran the V&A between 2011 and 2016, was the institution’s first foreign director in its 165-year history. He was widely credited with raising the profile of the museum, broadening its attention towards contemporary culture; during his tenure the institutions staged hugely popular shows on cultural figures such as fashion designer Alexander McQueen and rock icon David Bowie. Annual visitor figures at the V&A’s Kensington home rose from 2.6m in 2010/11 to 3.4m In 2015/16 and the museum received the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year award in 2016. Roth had spearheaded the V&A’s expansion through new venues and projects including V&A Dundee, opening in 2018, a venue in east London’s Olympic park and a collaborative gallery venture in Shenzen, China.
Roth resigned in September 2016, a decision reportedly hastened by the British referendum vote to leave the EU. He had been vocally critical of the campaign, and expressed his disillusion at its outcome and what he saw as a negative populist drift across Europe in recent years.
7 August 2017
