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07 Aug 2017

Former V&A director Martin Roth dies aged 62

Martin Roth - the former Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) director and the first German to head up a major UK cultural institution - has died aged 62.

Acting as V&A director for five years between 2011 and 2016, Roth resigned from his position in September last year, saying his decision had been fuelled in-part by his disillusionment at the recent Brexit vote.

Roth's time at the V&A coincided with a period of success, with the institution drawing record numbers of visitors thanks to exhibitions featuring the likes of David Bowie and Alexander McQueen.

In 2015 alone, four million people visited the museum, which led to it winning the 2016 Art Fund Museum of the Year award.

He also oversaw a number of major developments for the museum, including construction of the V&A Museum of Design Dundee, due to open in 2018 and V&A East in London’s Olympic park to open by 2022.

At the end of June, the V&A also completed its largest building project in more than a century, opening a new courtyard, museum entrance and a vast underground exhibition gallery.

“We are extremely saddened to hear that Dr. Martin Roth has died,” said V&A chair Nicholas Coleridge.

“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.

“We will greatly miss Martin, and are profoundly grateful for his considerable contribution to the V&A.”