A/N I really liked Mel's character; Stonebanks in the expendables 3, so I decided to gloss over his love for collecting expensive art pieces in the film.
Disclaimer: I Don't Own The Expendables.
For the Love of Modern Art
What made a painting valuable, exactly? Not many people knew.
Some thought that the quality of the painting had something to do with it. Others thought that it was the painting's subject.
Both, however, were wrong.
The quality of the art itself had nothing to do it. Pablo Picasso was a damn good example of that.
As for the painting's subject, no one really gave a shit about that either. If they did, people wouldn't be so enamured by paintings of apples and oranges and other meaningless portraits of still-life.
More than half of the popular art nowadays were just splats of paint and half-hearted streaks of color scraped carelessly across a blank canvas.
So what really made a painting valuable?
Stonebanks knew he had a real find when he spotted the shittiest painting in the whole galery. He knew for a fact that the fattest, wealthiest, son of a gun out there would be dying to get their hands on a piece just like that one.
And why, you may ask?
Conrad knew that the value of a painting was only as high as the seller himself would ask for it, and that the super-rich would kill to get their hands on what one would call a 'one-of-a-kind-masterpiece'.
They wouldn't give a damn whether or not the painting looked eye-pleasing or even a little bit presentable, all they cared about was how much of a profit they could make off it, if any.
Though if asked, Conrad would never admit that his collecting of art pieces were more than often for the purpose of profit.
Instead he'd tell them;
"It was for the love of modern art."