Nowra sits beside New York, Seattle and Houston as homes to the four versions of the Broken Obelisk sculpture.
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Created by American artist Barnett Newman and dedicated to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, the sculpture took pride of place in the National Gallery of Australia forecourt for many years.
However it now sits out front of the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra, and will remain in place for at least the next five years.
Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke officially launched the relocated artwork on Friday, February 16, and said while the arrangement was for the sculpture to be in Nowra for five years, "I dare anyone to try and move it, ever."
The sculpture "looks at home here in a beautiful way," Mr Burke said.
"It look like it's always been there and some people have boldly commented that it looks like it could never go anywhere else."
The sculpture's move to Nowra came about under the Sharing the National Collection program - designed to make better use of items within the national collection that were in storage.
Mr Burke said the "horrifying fact" was that at any time about 98 per cent of the national art collection was in storage, and the National Gallery offered the option of sharing its collection around regional and suburban galleries, offering works on long-term loans to create arts destinations all over the country.
But rather than asking for items or collections in storage, the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery asked for the piece that Shoalhaven deputy mayor Tonia Gray described as "arguably the National Gallery's most distinctive piece of 20th century American art".
She said its presence in Nowra "will boost visitor numbers in a tourist destination".
Mr Burke agreed, adding the sculpture was a work "of international importance".
And its presence in the Shoalhaven sent out the message, "If you care about great art, if you want to see a great gallery, then Nowra's one of the places you have to come to," he said.
"You're not going to be able to drive past without seeing this, by being affected by a work of international significance, that had its role as the entrance point to Canberra, and now is a symbol to the nation ... that one of the galleries people should be spending time with is here in the Shoalhaven here in Nowra," Mr Burke said.
At the National Gallery, "There was no more prominent display of any work of art than Broken Obelisk," Mr Burke said.
He described it as a piece "of international importance," with Federal Member for Gilmore, Fiona Phillips adding it "looks amazing".
She felt it would "really inspire people's imaginations".
Amid the people singing the artwork's praises was artist and Nowra TaFE Indigenous art teacher Warwick Keen, who said he "loved" the piece.
"It fits in there really well," he said.
