The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday that an unidentified U.S. art dealer purchased Warhol's painting, Skulls, for more than $7.4 million. It had been expected to go for more than $12 million.

Prior to the surprising auction win at Sotheby's auction house in London, art expert Anders Petterson detailed the impact the world's struggling economy has had on artwork sales.

"The crisis up until recently was hurting but was not really painful. In the last couple of weeks it has become painful," the ArtTactic expert said. "I think it is probably a reason to be more pessimistic."

The Telegraph said Friday's auction followed a very successful 2007 sale of a Warhol work in New York. The newspaper said Christie's auction house sold Warhol's Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) for $71 million last year, marking a sales record for a Warhol creation.