If there's one truly awesome alternative in the GTA Online Kortz Center Heist that goes unappreciated by a ton of players, it's the ability to keep the stolen paintings for yourself instead of simply selling them off for money. If you've been treating this heist as a simple money-grab, then there's definitely a whole different way to play that you'll want to check out.

This feature ties directly into one of the tier three career progression challenges tied to the heist, and pulling it off also unlocks a Platinum Award. Here's how the whole process for keeping the stolen paintings works in GTA Online Kortz Center Heist.

Before anything else, you need to have already completed the heist through story mode. That means finishing the initial setup and running through everything up to the point where you're planning the actual finale. Here's the catch though: when you go to plan the heist a second time, you won't find the option to keep the painting sitting on the board where the rest of your planning choices are.

Instead, the option only shows up once you launch into starting the GTA Online Kortz Center Heist itself. When you hit the matchmaking screen, the same place where you'd normally choose your giveaway vehicles and weapon loadouts, you'll spot something labeled 'Primary Target' tucked into the Settings section. This is easy to scroll past if you're not specifically looking for it.

Once you find that setting, you'll be able to rotate between two choices: Keep or Sell. Selecting 'Keep' means you'll walk away with the actual painting once the heist wraps up successfully. Choosing Sell goes the traditional route where you cash it in for money instead.

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If you choose to 'Keep' the 'Primary Target' painting, you're essentially wiping out the majority of your heist payout. The primary target is typically where the bulk of your money comes from, so opting to keep it instead of selling means that chunk of cash simply won't show up in your earnings.

If you're planning to grab the stolen paintings for your collection, it makes a lot more sense to do it during a week where you've already completed the heist once already. Since GTA Online limits how much money you can earn from repeat heist completions within the same week anyway, your second run's payout would already be minimal.

That makes it the perfect opportunity to go for the painting since you're not actually losing out on much extra cash by choosing Keep over Sell.

Assuming you're playing on new generation consoles, you should see a pop-up notification confirming that you've completed the tier three challenge once the heist finishes successfully. This confirms you've successfully kept your chosen painting and unlocked the associated progress.

From here, getting the stolen paintings displayed in your mansion takes just a few more steps. Head into your Mansion Management Menu, then navigate over to the Customization Menu. Inside there, you'll find a Decorations option. This lets you cycle through different display spots scattered throughout the mansion where art pieces can be placed.

Once you've found a spot you like, select the painting you stole during the heist to place it there. For reference, the Downfall of Rome painting ended up looking great in an entrance hall display spot, though obviously you can pick whichever location suits your own mansion layout best.

Read more: How to disable laser grid in GTA Online The Kortz Center Heist

Realistically, the entire sequence is really just aimed at anyone going for that Platinum Award, or anyone who absolutely wants that third tier challenge checked off their to-do list. Considering the fact that hanging onto the painting pretty much guts your main score significantly, it doesn’t really pay to bother with it on a fresh run through the week when there’s decent cash on offer anyway.

And if you decide that you do want to do this, what I’d tell you is, try to find a painting that you think is actually kind of nice, because it’s going to be hanging in your mansion for a long time. Also try to set it up to be one of the days where you’ve already done one of the heists for that week so you’re not losing a payoff that would have paid off.

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