In the last few days I have been in the company of people very close to the art community. I have never seen them looking so happy.
They have reason to believe that Tony Abbott will allow self-managed funds to hang their art investments on the walls of the homes of fund beneficiaries.
This will transform the Australian art market and mean that artists will not have to come to the government for handouts.
It will also deliver a big chunk of the arts community into the Coalition camp.
The Australian art market has been devastated in the last few years because the main buyers, self-managed funds, were forced by the Labor government to store their art in storage houses.
Usually that involved paying storage fees. Very often the self-managed funds simply sold the art and, as a result, the Australian art market collapsed.
Should Tony Abbott announce such a policy switch then the Australian art market will take off and artists will get to work again.
There are absolutely no guarantees with this rumour pass on but, rest assured, I would not do it if I did not believe there is strong evidence that such a policy switch is in the wings and could happen before the election campaign is completed. Maybe it will be part of the Coalition’s campaign launch.