An album so rare and precious that few have ever heard it is to go on display at an Australian Museum and the public will get a taste of its exclusive songs.

The album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” which were secretly recorded by Wu-Tang Clan for six years it was designed to be a work of art and kept in an elaborate silver box. There is only one copy of the CD.

The pioneering hip-hop group’s album is the most expensive ever sold. It is currently on loan to the Tasmanian Museum of Old and New Art (Mona).

Over 10 days in June, Mona will host mini-listening parties where audiences can listen to a curated 30-minute sample of the album, according to the BBC.

The album is part of the exhibition ‘Namedropping’, which examines status, fame and the ‘human quest’.

The Wu-Tang Clan formed in Staten Island in the early 90s and revolutionized hip-hop forever.

Recorded in New York and produced in Marrakech between 2006 and 2013, the album features all nine living members of the group.

The band felt that the value of music was declining due to online streaming and piracy and wanted to take “a 400-year-old renaissance-style approach to music, offering it as an on-demand product”.

The album includes a hand-carved nickel box and a leather-bound manuscript containing lyrics and a certificate of authenticity – and the legal stipulation that the owner cannot release the 31 songs for 88 years.

Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was auctioned in 2015. Since then, the album-artist manifesto has changed hands several times, been owned by former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, the US federal authorities, and is now owned by digital art collective Pleasr .