The sole copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin will be played to the public for the first time at a Tasmanian museum.
The Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart will be holding limited listening events as part of its upcoming exhibition, Namedropping.
Visitors can experience a curated 36-minute mix from the album, played from a personalised Wu-Tang PlayStation 1, in Mona’s own recording studio, Frying Pan.
The sessions will be held from June 15 to June 24.
A limited number of free tickets will be available to the public from 10am AEST on Thursday.
The lone copy was sold to now-disgraced pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli in 2015 for $US2 million ($3.1 million) and the digital master files deleted.
In 2021, the US Department of Justice sold the 31-track album to digital art collective Pleasr for $6 million to cover ”pharma bro” Shkreli’s debts after he was convicted of securities fraud.
In a statement, Pleasr said it was honoured to partner with Mona to “support RZA’s vision”.
“Ten years ago, the Wu-Tang Clan had a bold vision to make a single copy album as a work of fine art.
“To ‘put it in an art gallery … make music become a living piece like a Mona Lisa or a sceptre from Egypt’.
“With this single work of art, the Wu-Tang Clan’s intention was to redefine the meaning of music ownership and value in a world of digital streaming and commodification of music.”
Recorded in secret between 2006 and 2013, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is the seventh release from the influential US hip-hop collective.
Surviving members of the group include RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa.
Contained in a jewel-encrusted box, the two-CD album is bound by a legal agreement preventing its commercial release until 2103.
