The Wu-Tang Clan - Once Upon a Time in Shaolin (2015)

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is the seventh studio album by the American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

Only one physical copy of the album was created, with no ability to download or stream it digitally.

Purchased directly from the Wu-Tang Clan in 2015, it became the most expensive work of music ever sold.

The album was recorded in secret over six years.

A single two-CD copy was pressed in 2014 and stored in a secured vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco, then auctioned through [an] auction house.

The auction gained significant public attention, and an unfounded rumour spread virally online that the purchase agreement stipulated that members of the Wu-Tang Clan, or actor Bill Murray, would be allowed one attempt at stealing the record back in a heist.

The winning bidder was Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who paid a reported $2 million.

In March 2018, following Shkreli's conviction for securities fraud, a federal court seized assets belonging to him, including Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

In July 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice sold it to non-fungible token collectors PleasrDAO for $4 million to cover Shkreli's debts.

The group hope to make the album more widely available, but are bound by the restrictions forbidding its release to the general public [and] suggested it could be played at listening parties or exhibitions.

The first such public exhibition was scheduled by the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania, in 2024.