The Art Gallery of New South Wales reached its goal last night of earning at least A$1 (US$647,000) million for two Australian works, reports Bloomberg.

The works, Brett Whiteley's Balmoral, which sold for A$990,000, and John Perceval’s Pleasure Craft, which earned A$198,000, were being sold to help raise funds for the museum's purchase in September of Cezanne's Bords de la Marne (1888) for A$16.2 million.

The museum announced earlier this month that it had already raised 85 percent of the price of the Cezanne and that it hoped to raise an additional A$1 million at the auction. The works were being deaccessioned with the approval of the benefactor who donated them to the museum nearly 25 years ago.

The works were among A$2.8 million of art sold last night at Sotheby's, which said 60.8 percent of the lots sold, with 85 percent of those going above their low estimates.

“We are very pleased with this result in the current economic climate,” the auction house said in a statement.