Victoria and Albert Museum gets new director

New Delhi: Martin Roth has been appointed as the new director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, with which India has a cultural partnership on exhibitions and other related collaborations.

The first-of-its-kind cultural partnership agreement between the museum and the Indian cultural ministry was signed July 2010 and a series of exchanges are in line. Roth, currently director-general of the Dresden State Art Collections, will assume his new office Sep 1, 2011, a statement said Wednesday. Paul Ruddock, chairman of the museum`s board of trustees, said: "Martin Roth has a strong record of leading and managing complex arts organisations and brings experience of working in museums and cultural organisations around the world. We feel he is the ideal person to build on the recent successes of the V and A to enhance its position as the leading international museum of art and design." Ed Vaizey, the British minister for culture, communications and creative industries, said that Roth`s wealth of experience, knowledge and commitment to the arts internationally will be a real asset in leading Britain`s national museum of art and design. Roth was the curator at the German Historical Museum in Berlin (1989-91) and the director of the German Hygiene-Museum in Dresden (1991-2000) before being appointed director general of the Dresden State Art Collections in 2001. IANS