A 200-year-old painting is coming back to Chepstow after being bought in an auction in Australia on Sunday morning.

Chepstow Museum curator Anne Rainsbury had to be ready by the phone at 6.15am to get in her bid for the view of Tintern Abbey painted by Francis Nicholson in 1808.

The watercolour of a classic view of the interior of the abbey went under the hammer at Elder Fine Art auctioneers in Adelaide. It was Lot 217 in a sale of Australian and international paintings.

Ms Rainsbury said: "It was an early start but it was very rewarding.

"It's a beautiful painting and a significant piece for the museum."

"Many works of art from Britain have made their way to Australia and we will be trying to find out more about the provenance of this painting."

"There was another bidder but we were fortunate in being able to acquire it for a price at the bottom end of the estimate."

The auctioneer's estimate was between 1,000 and 1,500 Australian dollars (about £650-£1,000) and the winning bid was the bottom estimate.

The painting was bought using money from the Heritage Lottery Fund's Collecting Cultures programme which provides funds to enable museums to enhance their collections in a focussed way rather than looking for Lottery support as objects come up for sale.

Chepstow Museum's bid, based around the Wye Tour, was one of 22 winners and the only one from Wales. The five-year programme comes to an end next year

The Wye Tour brought a host of artists including Nicholson, Turner and Wordsworth, to Chepstow and the Wye Valley during the late 18th and early 19th century and is considered the start of modern tourism.