SYDNEY—The Art Gallery of New South Wales has acquired a Cezanne painting for $16.2 million (U.S. $13.3 million), the Australian Associated Press reports. The work, Bords de la Marne (1888), is the most expensive piece ever bought by an Australian art museum. It belonged to a Swiss family for the last 100 years.

Curator Edmund Capon called the purchase the "most ambitious acquisition" in the institution's history. "Twenty-five years ago when we launched the [Art Gallery] Foundation, I [said that] at the top of the list of things we needed to do was Cezanne," he said. "It's long overdue that we had one on the walls of this gallery."

The foundation has raised about 85 percent of the purchase price so far. Capon hopes to raise the rest by the end of the year.

The painting was unveiled today and will be on view in the gallery's old courts.