A magnificent golden ship with rippling silver sails and five men in glistening coats will soon captivate visitors at Bath's Holburne Museum, marking the first time many rare Renaissance treasures from the Schroder banking dynasty will be displayed to the public. The Schwarzenberg Nef, dating from around 1580, features intricate details including a drummer among the five figures at the front, rowers sitting in the shadowy interior, and a nervous gunman keeping watch from the crow's nest.

Nearly 200 Old Master treasures from the Schroder Collection will go on display in two dedicated galleries opening September 10 at the Holburne Museum in Bath, United Kingdom. These remarkable works represent more than a century of collecting by the late banker and billionaire Bruno Schroder (1933-2019) and his predecessors, offering visitors an unprecedented glimpse into one of Britain's most significant private art collections.

The exhibition came about through a generous arrangement initiated by Bruno's daughter, Leonie Schroder, who wanted to share the family's treasures with the public under specific conditions. "She had two requests: one was that it would have to stay in the UK and the second was that preferably it should go to a regional museum, because she felt that London is already full of beautiful art," explained Caterina Badan, the collection's curator. The Holburne had initially borrowed just nine paintings from the Schroder Collection before learning of Leonie's interest in making the entire collection publicly accessible.

The centerpiece of the exhibition will be housed in the newly created Schroder Gallery, described as a modern Schatzkammer or treasure chamber located on the museum's lower ground floor. This impressive space will showcase an extraordinary range of Renaissance art including silver pieces, maiolica ceramics, and paintings by renowned masters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Elder. According to Badan, these diverse works will help "tell a multi-faceted story of the Renaissance defined by trade links, wars, looting and cultural exchange."

One of the most fascinating pieces in the collection is the Calvary Salt from 1550, which demonstrates the complex intellectual and artistic systems of the Renaissance period. Timothy Schroder, Bruno's cousin and a respected silver historian, notes that "a common thread is a sense of intellectual systems mixing together." The Calvary Salt features a sculpted crucifixion scene created through an intricate process of torching enamel powder onto a wire armature, while incorporating imagery from both the Old and New Testament, natural elements, and classical antiquity, including a depiction of Hercules holding two snakes at its base.

The public display of these works offers new opportunities for scholarly research and discovery, as many mysteries surrounding the collection remain unsolved. Questions linger about the origins of various components of pieces like the nef, which has a fascinating backstory involving the Knights of St. John, the Ottoman Empire, and Napoleon. Badan hopes that increased public access will lead to fresh insights, particularly regarding works like the "Portrait of a Lady in a Red Feathered Hat" (1528-35), attributed to Cranach and his workshop. "When you see it in the flesh, you realize it's really a Cranach, but in my research I haven't found any example from his repertoire where you find the same type of folds in the dress. I hope someone comes up and says they know one," she explained.

In addition to the main Schroder Gallery, the Holburne Museum is opening a second gallery upstairs that will feature a rotating selection of 17th-century paintings, primarily from Dutch masters. The entire initiative represents a significant investment of £2.5 million, funded entirely by the Bruno Schroder Trust, demonstrating the family's commitment to making these cultural treasures accessible to the public.

The Schroder Collection's history spans multiple generations, beginning with John Henry Schröder, who was born in Hamburg in 1825 and later relocated to London to join what would eventually become the family's influential investment banking firm. His estate and notable silver holdings were inherited by his nephew, Baron Bruno Schröder (1867-1940), who along with his wife Emma accumulated most of the masterpieces now being displayed in Bath. Many of these works originally adorned their Renaissance Revival-inspired residence, Dell Park, located in Englefield Green, United Kingdom.

The works now at the Holburne Museum come from the estate of Baron Bruno's grandson, Bruno Lionel Schroder, whose father Helmut had dropped the umlaut from the family name in 1930. Beyond his crucial role in expanding the success of the Schroder banking firm—Forbes estimated the Schroder family fortune at £6.2 billion in 2018—Bruno had diverse interests including the transformation of the 18,000-acre Dunlossit Estate he inherited on the Scottish island of Islay. His island residence featured a purpose-built room specifically designed to house Renaissance objects, and he was known for helping revive a local whisky distillery and supporting bagpipe players. Among the colorful stories about his life on Islay, The Times obituary memorably mentions his practice of flying pigs from Dorset to the island on his private jet.

The opening of Bath's Renaissance treasure chamber represents a significant cultural milestone for the United Kingdom, according to Timothy Schroder. "One has many such collections on the continent, particularly in Germany—but in this country, other than the Waddesdon Bequest [at the British Museum], there is very little of such material at all," he observed. "We have endless wonderful public collections of domestic silver, but the sense of the cumulative, the layers of meaning that were intended to be conveyed by a Schatzkammer—that's what the public will get an idea of in this place." This remarkable collection promises to offer visitors a rare opportunity to experience the intellectual complexity and artistic sophistication that defined Renaissance culture through the eyes of one of Britain's most discerning collecting families.