‘We never thought we’d have a Monet on our farm’: $174m artwork heads to regional Australian gallery

An impressionist masterpiece is being displayed in the Tweed Valley as the National Gallery shares its collection around the country

In late October an armoured van traveled through the flat cane fields of the Tweed Valley, in northern New South Wales. Carrying its precious cargo past tractors ploughing the earth after the cane burn-off, the fortified van came to a stop in what was, until relatively recently, a cow paddock.

It was here in this bucolic setting that a $174m impressionist masterpiece, in a specialised crate to insulate it from heat and vibration, was unloaded into the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre.