ABOVE: detail from Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles (1952), which National Gallery of Australia chairman Harold Mitchell recently said he was offered $100 million for. Such works could become part of Australia’s long-term investment for government pensions.

Call your brokers! Sell sell sell! Take your money out of those stupid blue-chip stocks and buy yourself a Kandinsky or a Picasso, ASAP. Citing the stratospheric appreciation demonstrated by 19th and 20th century American and European modernist masterpieces, the National Gallery of Australia is pushing for a new plan which would invest hundreds of millions of dollars of the Australian government’s pension fund in such works.

The Australians have set aside AU$16 billion this year for a so-called “Future Fund,” to invest for public-sector pensions (expected to reach AU$140 billion per year by 2020). It will be topped up with more after the government sells its partial stake in its semi-privatized telecom business Telstra Corp. The NGA sees an opportunity to build its collection (it had to pass on a Kandinsky earlier this year for lack of funds) and prove it can earn its keep financially. The proposal calls for 1-2 percent of the Future Fund—in the AU$300 million range—to be sunk into acquisitions for the national gallery, where the works can be displayed for the public’s pleasure now and sold off at a hefty profit later. For cash-strapped public galleries everywhere, this is an experiment to watch very carefully.

LINK: Sydney Morning Herald > Sell off Telstra, then show me the Monet

UPDATE: A government spokesman scrapped the plan in a press conference today.