The Kortz Center Heist: setup, preps and what it really pays

The Kortz Center Heist landed in GTA Online on 14 July 2026 as the centrepiece of the summer update, and it may well be the last big heist this game ever gets before GTA 6. It is a repeatable art robbery run out of your own Mansion: scope the gallery in Pacific Bluffs, plan the way in, lift the paintings, then choose whether the primary gets sold or hung on your own wall. It plays solo or with a crew of up to four.

This guide covers what you need to own before the planning board unlocks, why the scope-out decides your payout, which preps earn their place, and what the job actually pays once the weekly bonus and the fees shake out. Everything here is checked against the live game and community-tested runs as of early August 2026, and where a number rotates weekly, we say so.

What you need before you start

The one hard requirement sits with the host: a Mansion from the Safehouse in the Hills update, with the Art Studio expansion added through the Prix Luxury Real Estate site. The Art Studio costs GTA$4,700,000 at full price, drops to GTA$3,700,000 with the Fine Art Collector discount, and GTA$2,700,000 with that discount and an active GTA+ membership stacked together. Any of the three Mansions works once the studio is installed; Richman Villa''s location trims the drive to Pacific Bluffs on every prep and on the finale itself, which adds up across repeat runs.

Joining someone else''s crew needs none of it. No Mansion, no Art Studio, no fee. Which is exactly why heists like this live or die on finding a host, and why the Raid Finder exists. More on that at the end.

Once the studio is paid for, head down to Basement Level 2. A cutscene introduces Mr. Faber, his fixer Raf De Angelis, and the forger who moves into your studio to start counterfeiting the targets. Register as a CEO, open the Planning Board, and the job is live.

Your first run, start to finish

• Buy a Mansion, then add the Art Studio through Prix Luxury Real Estate
• Head to Basement Level 2 and watch the intro cutscene
• Register as a CEO and interact with the Planning Board
• Run the scope-out at the Kortz Center, and take your time on it
• Clear the required preps, then pick your optionals
• Build crew loadouts from the studio stockpile
• Launch the finale from the board
• Sell on the first run of the week, every week

The scope-out is where the money is won

Interacting with the board sends you to the Kortz Center to case the building. Take it seriously: the scope-out is what unlocks your entry points, reveals the optional preps, and caps how many secondary targets exist on the day. Rush it and you are robbing a smaller gallery than everyone else.

A thorough scope can put roughly GTA$2,300,000 to GTA$2,677,500 of secondary artwork on the table in tested runs. The catch is capacity: each player carries one loot bag, so a solo player physically cannot clear a full board, and at least one layout, the Crisp Gallery, needs two players in the room to open at all. Crew size is not just difficulty, it is take-home.

Preps worth your time

The required preps put the basics in place; the optional bench is where runs get comfortable. And you do not need to trek back to the Mansion for each one: call Raf from the phone menu and launch any prep straight from the list.

• Staff Key Card: your clean way in for a quiet approach
• Military Loadout: heavier weapons in the studio stockpile for when quiet stops being an option
• Armored Caracara: a getaway car that shrugs off attention
• Guard Shipments: destroy three armoured vans across the map, and bring something that flies to make the timer. It cannot be bought, only played, and it strips the heavy armour and helmets off every guard in the building. The single most valuable optional on the board
• Guard Routes: open the trunk of an unmarked police cruiser, plant a tracker on the Kortz radio tower, and every guard''s cone of vision shows on your minimap during the finale. This one can be bought outright if you would rather pay than play
• Glass Cutter: trace the cutter through an enemy network and raid the safehouse holding it, for cleaner access to the cases

Gear from completed preps stacks in the Art Studio, and the whole crew builds custom loadouts from that stockpile before launching. Skipping every optional will not lock you out of the finale, but it makes Elite Challenge attempts a much harder sell.

Running the finale

The scope-out earns you a choice of entry points and escape routes, and the job supports a genuine stealth run, a loud one, or the classic stealth-until-it-is-not. Two rules decide your money on the way round. First, taking damage knocks value off the secondary loot you are carrying, so tanking hits with a full bag is burning cash. Second, do not stuff the bag early if you expect the alarm to go: secure the primary first, then fill up on the way out.

Solo is entirely doable from scope to escape, and the community already has clean tested routes, including a Skylight entry that clears the whole finale in around fifteen minutes on Normal. Just go in honest about the trade: higher difficulty, one bag, and at least one loot room you cannot open alone.

What it actually pays

The heist is built around a weekly rhythm, and Rockstar is upfront about it: your first primary sale after Thursday''s reset pays a serious bonus, and every sale after that floods the market and pays a fraction. This is a once-a-week job done properly, not a grind loop.

The primary painting rotates weekly. As an example from the rotation running to 5 August 2026, La Derniere Debauche paid GTA$1,925,000 on a first sale of the week in tested Normal runs, and GTA$481,250 on an additional sale in the same week. Hard mode primaries in recent rotations have tested between roughly GTA$1.3 million and GTA$1.4 million on first sales. Secondary targets stack on top, inside the one-bag limit above.

The fees: your first setup after the weekly reset is free to plan, and every additional setup that week costs GTA$100,000. If a paid setup carries over a Thursday reset, the fee stays spent and the painting picks up the new week''s first-sale rate, so nothing is lost by finishing it. The Elite Challenge pays GTA$50,000 on Normal and GTA$100,000 on Hard, and the Buyer''s Request bonus matches it, so a perfect Hard run adds GTA$200,000 on top of the take.

One trap to know: some primaries can be displayed in your Art Studio instead of sold. Hanging it on the wall pays nothing. It is a flex, not an income. If the week''s painting is displayable and you want the money, sell it. And if you fancy taking the risk out of the helicopter escape, an optional GTA$1,200,000 Advanced Avionics upgrade for the Art Studio does exactly that in tested solo Elite routes. Nice to have, nowhere near required.

Finding a crew

Kortz is at its best with a full four: more bags, the co-op rooms open, and the awkward moments get shared. GTA Online has no crossplay, so your crew has to be on your platform, and that is exactly how our Raid Finder works: Xbox raids stay Xbox, PS5 stays PS5, one tap to join, and every gamertag lands with the host. It runs in the SixCentral Discord, which opens from your account page, and the full online desk lives at sixcentral.co.uk/online.

Run it once a week, on the reset, with the scope done properly and Guard Shipments in the bag, and the Kortz Center is the most reliable seven figures in Los Santos right now. See you Thursday.