What an unusual auction says about the art market

Penny pinch, a Chicago street artist, likes to have fun with art-world finances. His work—from murals to paintings to tote bags made in collaboration with the Chicago Cubs baseball team—uses scavenged or donated materials (hence the name). His latest experiment, hosted at A Very Serious Gallery, in the city’s north-west, is in pricing.On December 16th Mr Pinch is due to sell 15 paintings, one of which is pictured, in a Dutch auction. Each will start at a price of $3,000, which will be cut by $100 every hour until a buyer emerges. According to Mr Pinch and Allan Weinberger, the gallery’s owner, it is the first-ever such auction of new art (a claim your correspondent could not disprove).