Wu-Tang Clan’s Shaolin record sells for $1m

The one-of-a-kind copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin sold for $1m in an eBay sale that closed over the weekend.

The group recorded the double album, which comes presented in a jewelled box, in 2014. Only one copy was ever made.

Wu Tang Shaolin

The Wu-Tang Clan's Once Upon a Time in Shaolin cannot be commercially released until 2103

The lot was consigned by Martin Shkreli, the so-called “pharma bro” who received the ire of pretty much everyone in the western world when he raised the price of a crucial AIDS drug by 5,000%, following the buyout of a medical company in 2015.

He purchased the album that same year.

Shkreli is the only person to have heard to the album in its entirety, although he has played some snatches on a live stream.

Part of the reason he sold the record was his public beef with Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah, who strongly objected to Shkreli as a person. 

Ghostface released a series of videos mocking Shkreli, who responded in kind.       

In his statement on eBay, Shkreli wrote: “I decided to purchase this album as a gift to the Wu-Tang Clan for their tremendous musical output.

“Instead I received scorn from at least one of their (least-intelligent) members, and the world at large failed to see my purpose of putting a serious value behind music...

“At any time I may cancel this sale and I may even break this album in frustration. I will donate half of the sale proceeds to medical research.”

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