What is the most expensive album ever sold?
For rich people, scarcity is the most desired attribute in a product. Whether this is related to trainers, food or music, the reason for the high price remains the same. As a result, the most expensive album ever sold is by Wu-Tang Clan, and the price tag isn’t representative of the strength of its artistry. Instead, it was bought as a PR exercise.
Historically, the albums which sell for an obscene amount of money have a unique feature that elevates their price significantly. Usually, this is a marking which makes it stand out from the other copies of the same album. An example of this is Ringo Starr’s copy of The White Album by The Beatles, which had the number ‘0000001’ emblazoned upon it, which signalled it was the first issue. In 2015, he took the record to auction and sold the album to a mystery buyer for £620,000.
However, Ringo’s prized item is only the second highest-selling album of all time, and the record in the top spot was also controversially sold in the same year. In 2015, Wu-Tang Clan revealed plans for their new album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. However, the hip hop pioneers didn’t have any intention for their fans to hear it.
Instead, they contentiously only released a single two-CD copy, which was pressed in 2014 and stored in a secured vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Morrocco. Wu-Tang had been secretly making the album for six years, and the auction house, Paddle8, were left responsible for finding a home for the LP.
Shortly before the sole copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin went to market, Martin Shkreli hit the headlines for founding Turing Pharmaceuticals and raising the prices of its medication way beyond inflation, leaving its customers in possibly critical conditions. It made Shkreli an international villain, and he revelled in the infamy.
At this time, there was nobody more hated on the internet than Shkreli, and to make things worse; he became the album’s owner and paid $2 million for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. As part of the deal, the album could not be used for profit for 88 years and could only be heard at listening parties.
Hilariously, the contract also stipulated: “The buying party also agrees that at any time during the stipulated 88-year period, the seller may legally plan and attempt to execute one (1) heist or caper to steal back Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which, if successful, would return all ownership rights to the seller. Said heist or caper can only be undertaken by currently active members of the Wu-Tang Clan and/or actor Bill Murray, with no legal repercussions.”
After Shkreli was imprisoned in 2018 for securities fraud, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was seized by the US Department Of Justice. In an attempt to recoup his debts, they sold the item for $4m to NFT collectors, PleasrDAO, whose identity has never been revealed.
According to their website, they are “a collective of DeFi leaders, early NFT collectors and digital artists who have built a formidable yet benevolent reputation for acquiring culturally significant pieces with a charitable twist”.
Thankfully, Shkreli didn’t see a penny of the profits he made from the sale but judging the transaction solely on face value, it was a sound investment. Wu-Tang later expressed their regret about selling the album to the felon, with RZA admitting it ended up “in the wrong hands” to Hot 97. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait until 2103 to hear Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
