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A Cape Town gallery's commercial dispute is exposing how Global South art markets still operate on handshake trust
Former artists and ex-staffers say SMAC Gallery in Cape Town owes them money and is holding back works. The dispute exposes how thin the formal credit rails in African commercial galleries remain.

Desk note: Monexus covered the SMAC allegations by reading them primarily as a story about institutional infrastructure — the consignment-and-credit rails under the Global South commercial art market — rather than as a two-sided personality dispute. The ARTNews URL is the only source provable from the thread context; we decline to pad the ledger with speculative or fabricated references to other outlets.
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