The Spectator’s Notes | 22 September 2016

When I read that Martin Roth, the director of the V&A, was resigning from his job because of Brexit, I sensed it was not quite true. I did not doubt the sincerity of Dr Roth’s views: he has his German generation’s horror of anything which could be presented as ‘nationalism’. It was rather that it did not make sense as a motive for leaving his post. Brexit won’t actually happen until roughly the time when Dr Roth would have left anyway, so it could not have impeded his work. Besides, the collections of the V&A are not at the slightest risk of attack for being ‘decadent’ art under the May regime. My hunch seems to be right. It turns out that Dr Roth had decided to leave anyway — to see more of his family in Germany and Vancouver, to rest from his many arduous years of running distinguished museums, perhaps for other reasons too.