Elon Musk superfans unveil elaborate 12,000lb goat sculpture at Tesla headquarters - but he fails to accept it

An eccentric sculpture of Elon Musk weighing 12,000 pounds (5,443kg) has been unveiled outside the Tesla headquarters in Austin, Texas in a cryptocurrency stunt.

The statue depicts Mr Musk’s head on the body of a goat riding a rocket. The people behind the cryptocurrency Elon GOAT say they named it after him because they believe he’s the “greatest of all time” – aka the “GOAT” - according to the Wall Street Journal.

The sculpture cost $600,000 to create and depicts Mr Musk’s head along with a gold dogecoin necklace.

The rocket can be be at the sky and is able to shoot flames out the back. Referring to the event as “GOATSgiving,” the creators brought the sculpture to Tesla HQ hoping that Mr Musk would accept it as a gift.

Tesla security officer Dustin Dailey told The Journal that he’s “fairly certain” Mr Musk was aware of the stunt. “It’s all over Twitter.”

Elon GOAT Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder Alec Wolvert told the paper that they planned on camping at public lands near Tesla until Mr Musk took the statue.

“We’re gonna stay here as long as possible,” he said. “I even heard some people say they were going to strap themselves to it.”

Fellow Co-Founder Ashley Sansalone said the idea came to them last year.

“It was an evening joke that kind of just came to fruition,” he said.

They asked sculptor Kevin Stone, based in British Columbia, Canada, to make the sculpture in an attempt to get Mr Musk to tweet about it and gain notoriety for their cryptocurrency.

“Elon tweeting us would legitimize the token,” Mr Sansalone, 40, said.

He said he now works full-time on the token and that he has previously operated a construction business and has worked as an energy trader.

The head of Mr Musk took Mr Stone almost six months to build while others built the body and rocket.

“When I first saw the statue my jaw dropped,” DeMarco Hill, 51, told The Journal. He first saw it in September in Goodyear, Arizona. “It was something you’ve never seen before in your life.”

The truck driver asked if he could take part in the project and he has since driven it through several states, including California, Arizona, Washington, and now Texas.

“If I pull up to the side of the road it’s like people crowding around. It gets crazy,” he said.

“I would say he is probably the most relevant person on the planet right now,” Mr Sansalone said of Mr Musk.

The sculpture was parked outside the Tesla office in Palo Alto, California in September when the firm hosted a conference about AI.

Mr Sansalone said he thinks Mr Musk saw the sculpture.

“All there was to look at was a lit-up rocket erected in the middle of the street,” he said.

On Saturday, a group of people started chanting “Elon claim your goat” hoping that Mr Musk would hear them.

Elon GOAT holder Aamir Manzoor, 36, of Toronto told the paper: “I’m a huge fan of Elon and I want to give this man his flowers while he’s alive,” adding that “he’s done a lot for the world.”

According to Mr Sansalone, the group left Tesla HQ at 10pm on Saturday and since the sculpture wasn’t received by Mr Musk, it will now be taken on tour.