If you’re a celebrity, the greatest gift of all is a lifelike sculpture made of marble and hair

It’s the 30th birthday present every celebrity needs: a life-size 3D portrait that channels inspiration Italy’s Renaissance masters.

Working under the name Aspencrow, Lithuanian artist Edgar Askelovic worked for months to create the unusual gift for Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor.

The sculpture, simply called ATLAS, shows the athlete emerging from a block of hewn rock. Many have already drawn parallels with work by Michelangelo himself, particularly his unfinished Atlas Slave.

Askelovic, who has already created similar sculptures of Rihanna, David Bowie and Kurt Cobain from his current base in Birmingham, painstakingly added individual hairs to create the hyper-realistic statue. Although almost all of McGregor’s signature tattoos were left off the image, one tattoo, a gorilla, was instead recreated on the back of the sculpture as graffiti.

The statue will be on display at London’s JD Malat Gallery from 14 July to 30 September, before being presented to McGregor at a later date.