Meet the New Owners of the Wu-Tang Clan’s One-of-a-Kind Album (original) (raw)

Music|Meet the New Owners of the Wu-Tang Clan’s One-of-a-Kind Album

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/arts/music/wu-tang-clan-once-upon-a-time-in-shaolin.html

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The government sold “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” to satisfy a judgment against its first owner, Martin Shkreli. It ended up with a collective called PleasrDAO that paid an intermediary $4 million.

Martin Shkreli was said to have paid 2milliontoowntheWu−TangClan’sone−of−a−kindalbum,“OnceUponaTimeinShaolin.”Itsnewbuyerspaid2 million to own the Wu-Tang Clan’s one-of-a-kind album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” Its new buyers paid 2milliontoowntheWu−TangClan’sone−of−a−kindalbum,“OnceUponaTimeinShaolin.”Itsnewbuyerspaid4 million.Credit...Jamis Johnson

Oct. 20, 2021

Seven years ago, the Wu-Tang Clan’s one-of-a-kind album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” was created as a protest against the devaluation of music in the digital era. Before long it got caught up in a tale of capitalist villainy when it was purchased by Martin Shkreli, the price-gouging young pharmaceutical speculator who was later convicted of securities fraud.

Now the album has found yet another life on the frontier of digital art and cryptocurrency, having been sold for $4 million to PleasrDAO, a collective that has existed for less than a year but has already built a reputation for acquiring high-profile digital works.

In a complex deal with multiple parties, one of whom remains unidentified, PleasrDAO acquired “Once Upon a Time” after its sale in July by the federal government, which had seized the album to satisfy the balance of a $7.4 million forfeiture money judgment against Mr. Shkreli that was part of his sentencing in 2018. (Mr. Shkreli is still serving out a seven-year prison sentence.)

When the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, announced the sale of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” this summer, no details about the buyer, or price, were disclosed; prosecutors said that information was confidential.

But PleasrDAO, which took possession of the album on Sept. 10 and is keeping it in a “vault” somewhere in New York City, has decided to come forward, to celebrate its trophy and announce its goal to ultimately, somehow, make the album more widely available for fans to hear — if, that is, it can convince RZA, the Wu-Tang’s leader, and his fellow producer Cilvaringz to allow it.

PleasrDAO’s Jamis Johnson described the purchase as appealing to the group’s interest in acquiring signature items of digital culture, as well as to a wider mission that it shares with many cryptocurrency champions: prying artistic creations from an exploitative, antiquated economic system and offering the promise of a fairer one.

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