Prince’s legendary music vault drilled open

One week on from the death of pop icon Prince, a mysterious vault inside his Minnesota mansion has been drilled open by the company administering his estate.

The vault is said to be a giant room with shelves containing album after album of unreleased music from the prolific artist, ABC News reported.

The door to the vault inside the Paisley Park mansion was reportedly sealed with a large spinning wheel, which had to be forcibly drilled open, as Prince kept the security code a highly guarded secret.

There is purportedly enough material in the vault to release one album per month for the next decade.

The singer's former sound engineer, Susan Rogers, told the ABC that much of the unreleased material was recorded during Prince's prolific 1980's period which included the release of smash-hit albums Purple Rain and 1999.

Prince had spoken about the trove of unreleased music on US talk show The View.

"One day, someone will release them. I don't know that I'll get to release them. There's just so many," the singer said in 2012.

The news comes as Prince's extended family continues to dispute the ownership of his $300m estate, with the artist never completing a will and having no surviving children.

Minnesota law states that if Prince did not have a will or trust, his estate is set to be divided between sister Tyka Nelson and her five half-siblings.