Former V&A Director Martin Roth Dies at 62 After Illness

Martin Roth, the art historian who served as director of the Victoria & Albert Museum from 2011 to 2016, has died at age 62 following a serious illness. He was the first foreign director in the museum's 165-year history. Under his leadership, the V&A's annual visitor numbers at its Kensington location increased from 2.6 million in 2010/11 to 3.4 million in 2015/16. Roth significantly raised the institution's profile by broadening its focus toward contemporary culture, staging highly popular exhibitions on figures like fashion designer Alexander McQueen and rock icon David Bowie. In 2016, the museum won the Art Fund's Museum of the Year award. Roth also spearheaded the V&A's expansion through new projects, including V&A Dundee (opening in 2018), a venue in east London's Olympic Park, and a collaborative gallery venture in Shenzhen, China. He resigned in September 2016, a decision reportedly accelerated by the UK's referendum vote to leave the European Union. Roth had been vocally critical of the Brexit campaign and expressed disillusionment with its outcome, as well as concerns about a negative populist drift across Europe in recent years.