I know a Joe the Plumber kind of guy who did work on Bruce’s mansion in NJ. It took over a year for him to get paid. Many times they said to him that he should not charge for his work because just being able to tell people he did work at BS’s house should be good enough.
Picasso had a different scam to get things free. He’d write a lot of small checks that people would keep for the Picasso autographs rather than cashing them.