Wu-Tang Clan: The rarest and most expensive album of all time to be played to the public for first time at Mona

nme.com:

Wu-Tang Clan, is set to be played to the public for the first time at an art gallery in Tasmania.The record in question is the New York group’s seventh studio effort ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin’, for which they released only one physical copy in 2014.The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart has acquired the album on loan from the digital art collective Pleasr (via The Guardian).

And it is due to feature in the ‘Namedropping’ exhibition, which will centre on status, celebrity and notoriety.Recorded in secret between 2006 and 2013, the project became the most valuable album ever made, and reportedly features contributions from all surviving members of Wu-Tang Clan, as well as two guest appearances from Cher.

The unique copy was housed in a silver, jewel-encrusted box, alongside leather-bound liner notes and a wax seal of the Wu-Tang Clan logo.No digital downloads or streams have ever been made available, and after pressing the CD, the Clan stored it in a high-security vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco.

It later went to auction the following year, however came with the conditions that the purchaser could not commercially exploit the music until the year 2103.The 88-year restriction was chosen as there were eight original members of Wu-Tang clan, because the numbers of the year 2015 added to eight, and because the number rotated made the symbol for infinity.The agreement also stipulated that the album could be played at listening parties, and a 13-minute medley was later played to only around 50 art experts, fans and prospective buyers at a one-off event at New York’s MoMa in 2015.‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ later went to auction, and was bought by disgraced pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli.