Wu-Tang Clan's unreleased 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' is now at an Australian museum

By Ayana Archie

Published May 28, 2024 at 11:23 PM AKDT

From left, Wu-Tang Clan members RZA, Ghostface Killah, director Sacha Jenkins and Wu-Tang Clan members U-God, Cappadonna and Masta Killa pose at the premiere of "Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men" during the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 28, 2019, in Park City, Utah.

After years of exchanging hands between owners, Wu-Tang Clan’s elusive seventh album will finally be available for some fans to listen to.

The hip-hop group’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin will be part of an upcoming exhibit at the Museum of Old and New and Art in Tasmania, Australia. The museum is only playing a few of the songs in free private listening events, which visitors can book in 30-minute slots, beginning Thursday.

The listening events will run from June 15-24. But people who want to have a chance at the tickets will need to move. Tickets will be released at 10 a.m. Thursday local time in Tasmania, the museum said.

The album, which has 31 tracks, was put up for auction in 2015 and reportedly purchased for $2 million by Martin Shkreli, who drove up the price of a life-saving prescription by 5,000% and eventually served seven years in prison for securities fraud. Shkreli forfeited the album to the U.S. government in 2018 which sold it to an anonymous buyer for an undisclosed amount in 2021.

The exhibit also features notable figures, cultural imprints and businesses, such as J. Robert Oppenheimer, McDonald’s, Madonna and Jimi Hendrix.