Contemporary art sales are beginning to feel the effects of the financial crisis with Sotheby's and Christie's both reporting disappointing sales.

Auction house Sotheby's failed to reach its estimate of £55.3 million for its contemporary art sales over the summer, making a total of £43.9 million.

The daytime sale of contemporary art saw just over 58 per cent of its lots sold, raising £7.1 million - well short of its pre-sale estimates of £10.9 million to £15.3 million.

Even in evening sales, which tend to include the bigger artists, the auction house failed to equal its estimates, with 15 of its 62 lots failing to sell.

Andy Warhol's series of 10 skull paintings, the highest selling lot in the auction, still fell £646,750 below its lowest estimate at £4.35 million.

Cheyenne Westphal, chairwoman of contemporary art at Sotheby's Europe said the sale was "assembled in a very different economic environment from that which prevailed today."

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Christie's Sunday evening sale told a similar story.

Although the auction made a total of £31.97 million, compared to last year's record-breaking £33.9 million, only 26 of the 47 lots sold.

Lucian Freud's portrait of Francis Bacon, estimated to sell between £5 million to £7 million, only reached £5.4 million.

Christie's Chief executive Ed Dolman told The Guardian: "The sale wasn't as successful as last season's and we are perhaps seeing a correction from the past few seasons. But there is significant liquidity and a surprising amount of activity when a lot of people thought there would be no activity at all. The real message is one of cautious optimism.

"The turbulence hasn't hit our market as much as it has in other areas. There has been a surprising amount of cash moving round the market in the past few days, especially in terms of Chinese and Middle Eastern art. This gives us a belief that the new buyers who have emerged are here, and here to stay."