Back in 2013, iconic hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan sold a sole copy of their album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for a reported $2 million. The agreement between the buyer and the group stipulated that the album can’t be commercially used, multiplied, or released to the public in any other way for the next 88 years.
However, Wu-Tang Clan fans will still have the opportunity to check it out, thanks to an upcoming exhibition organized by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
As part of the Namedropping exhibition, which runs from June 15 to June 24, MONA will host listening events on which museumgoers will be able to hear certain tracks from Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. The album, which has two CDs and is almost two hours long, will be condensed into a 30-minute listening experience.
“Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is more than just an album, so when I was thinking about status, and what a transcendent namedrop could be, I knew I had to get it into this exhibition,” MONA’s Director of Curatorial Affairs Jarrod Rawlins said in a statement.
Wu-Tang Clan started working on the Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in the late 2000s. The project took six years to complete and included appearances of all original members of the group as well as guest appearances from Redman, the Wu-Tang Killa Beez, unnamed soccer players, actress Carice van Houten, and pop superstar Cher.
