Western leaders trade in art in order to stay afloat (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
tread water
'stay afloat' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'western leaders trade in art in order' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'western' could be 'w' and 'w' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'trade' is 'tread' which is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tread water that I've seen before include "Mainly make no progress" , "having no solid base" , "Stay afloat" , "Make little or no progress" , "unwilling to go with the flow?" .)