New York ( CNN ) -- A famously macabre painting by Andy Warhol sold for $ 105.4 million Wednesday , a record for the famed pop artist and the second-most expensive piece of art ever auctioned , according to Sotheby 's auction house . `` Silver Car Crash ( Double Disaster ) '' shows a twisted body in the wreckage of a car crash , part of Warhol 's vaunted `` Death and Disaster '' series , painted in 1963 . Arts magazine ARTNews published an interview with Warhol in November 1963 , in which the artist said of the series , `` I guess it was the big plane crash picture , the front page of a newspaper : 129 DIE . I was also painting the Marilyns . I realized that everything I was doing must have been Death . '' The large painting , which measures 8 feet by 13 feet , is one of only four works of that size in the series and the only one remaining in a private collection , according to Sotheby 's . It had been in a private collection since 1989 and has rarely been viewed in public . Sotheby 's declined to identify the buyer . `` 'Silver Car Crash ' is the most important work of contemporary art we have ever had the privilege to offer , and its exceptional result is a testament to that fact , '' said Tobias Meyer , worldwide head of contemporary art at Sotheby 's and the evening 's auctioneer . Another well-known painting from the 1960s also sold for over $ 100 million this week . On Tuesday , Francis Bacon 's `` Three Studies of Lucian Freud '' sold for $ 142.4 million after six minutes of bidding in the room and on the phone at Christie 's in New York , the most expensive piece of art ever auctioned , according to auction house spokeswoman Elizabeth Van Bergen . Another iconic Warhol image , `` Coca-Cola ( 3 ) , '' sold for $ 57.2 million Tuesday at Christie 's . `` Silver Car Crash ( Double Disaster ) '' was one of several Warhol pieces in the Sotheby 's auction Wednesday . `` Liz # 1 ( Early Colored Liz ) '' drew $ 20.3 million and `` Flowers ( Five Foot Flowers ) '' sold for $ 11.3 million , according to the auction house . Andy Warhol pops up in China ... again . CNN 's Sho Wills and Allie Malloy contributed to this report .
`` Silver Car Crash ( Double Disaster ) '' shows twisted body , wreckage of car crash . Price is a record for a Warhol work ; Sotheby 's auction house declines to name the buyer . It 's the second-most expensive piece of art ever auctioned , Sotheby 's says . Auction house calls it `` the most important work of contemporary art '' it 's ever sold .