[1] He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Tübingen in 1987: his doctoral dissertation concerned "the political and historical context of museums and exhibitions in Germany between 1871 and 1945".

[3] Roth was the director general of the Dresden State Art Collections, overseeing 12 museums and galleries.

[8] Other major projects during his directorship included the museum's new Exhibition Road entrance,[9] designed by Amanda Levete; plans to expand with V&A East in Stratford, London;[10] and the Kengo Kuma-designed V&A Dundee in Scotland.

[11] The V&A's international programme and profile developed markedly under Martin Roth's leadership the V&A will partner with the Smithsonian Institution to create a permanent gallery space as a part of V&A East; the V&A and China Merchants Gekou Holdings (CMGK) have jointly launched the Design Society, a complex comprising a new design museum by Maki and Associates, and the V&A Gallery.

[16] Roth was appointed co-curator of the Azerbaijan Pavilion, sponsored by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, at the 2017 Venice Biennale.

[19] A response editorial in Der Tagesspiegel questioned whether Roth had "left his mind behind in London", pointing out that, according to Human Rights Watch, Azerbaijan, under President Ilham Aliyev (the "dictator of Baku") has "one of the worst human rights records in the international community".

[23] An article in The Guardian in September 2017 revealed that Azerbaijan's ruling elite had operated a secret $2.9bn (£2.2bn) scheme to pay prominent Europeans, buy luxury goods and launder money through a network of opaque British companies.

However, the newspaper also points out that the money arrived via a disguised route and that not all recipients were aware of its original source.

[26] In its obituary of Roth, the Moscow-based media website Vesnik Kavkaza described him as "the man who loved Azerbaijan".