Cape Town Gallery Accused of Withholding Pay and Artworks
SMAC Gallery in Cape Town faces allegations from South African artist Kate Gottgens that it delayed payments and withheld artworks after she ended a nearly 13-year relationship with the gallery late last year. Gottgens said SMAC failed to return her painting “Audible Doom” (2021) for four years after it did not sell at Miart in Milan in 2022, and she described a broader pattern in which payments for sold works arrived months or even years late. SMAC Exhibitions Coordinator and Operations Manager Jean Butler denied the claims, saying Gottgens knew the work’s location and that delays were due to import/export issues beyond the gallery’s control; a lawyer for SMAC also accused her of defamatory social media posts. Gottgens further alleged that her painting “Monster Love” (2010) was returned to her in early 2025 but a collector later claimed to have bought it in 2024, which she said the gallery called an “administrative error,” and she stated that SMAC held more than 50 of her works when she left.
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This story was covered in Museums Under Fire, Markets Back in Vogue