Former V&A director Martin Roth has died
London venue won Museum of the Year under his leadership
Martin Roth, the former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), has died.
A statement from Nicholas Coleridge, the chairman of the V&A, on the museum’s website said: “We are extremely saddened to hear that Dr Martin Roth has died. Martin will be remembered as a man of prodigious energy; a director with a global reputation both within the museum world and beyond; a committed Europhile and cultural ambassador with a philosophical turn of mind, as well as a devoted husband and father.”
Roth was appointed director of the museum in 2011 and stood down last year.
The statement pointed out a number of Roth’s achievements, including winning the 2016 Art Fund Museum of the Year award and being the impetus behind the V&A’s presence at the Venice Biennale.
Other projects that Roth was closely involved in include the founding of the V&A Research Institute and the development of plans for V&A locations in Dundee and Shekou, China, as well as the creation of new European Galleries at its main site in London's South Kensington that opened in 2015, and the museum’s recently-opened Exhibition Road Quarter.
Coleridge said: “This, combined with exhibitions such as David Bowie Is, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Disobedient Objects and Engineering the World: Ove Arup, raised the V&A to new heights.”
He added: “We will greatly miss Martin, and are profoundly grateful for his considerable contribution to the V&A”.
A statement from Nicholas Coleridge, the chairman of the V&A, on the museum’s website said: “We are extremely saddened to hear that Dr Martin Roth has died. Martin will be remembered as a man of prodigious energy; a director with a global reputation both within the museum world and beyond; a committed Europhile and cultural ambassador with a philosophical turn of mind, as well as a devoted husband and father.”
Roth was appointed director of the museum in 2011 and stood down last year.
The statement pointed out a number of Roth’s achievements, including winning the 2016 Art Fund Museum of the Year award and being the impetus behind the V&A’s presence at the Venice Biennale.
Other projects that Roth was closely involved in include the founding of the V&A Research Institute and the development of plans for V&A locations in Dundee and Shekou, China, as well as the creation of new European Galleries at its main site in London's South Kensington that opened in 2015, and the museum’s recently-opened Exhibition Road Quarter.
Coleridge said: “This, combined with exhibitions such as David Bowie Is, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Disobedient Objects and Engineering the World: Ove Arup, raised the V&A to new heights.”
He added: “We will greatly miss Martin, and are profoundly grateful for his considerable contribution to the V&A”.