Artist suing FIFA over destruction of Dallas whale mural before World
Cup
[June 04, 2026]
By RUSS BYNUM
The artist who painted a giant mural on a building in downtown Dallas of
life-sized swimming whales has filed a $25 million lawsuit against
soccer's international governing body and others, saying they illegally
painted over his work to promote the city's upcoming World Cup matches.
The artist Wyland says he hand-painted the sprawling mural that covered
roughly 17,000 square feet (1,580 square meters) across two of the
building's walls.
The mural stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting
over it last month, causing an uproar among residents who admired the
mural's grand scale and message of ocean conservation.
The area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that, in
place of Wyland's mural, new artwork is planned "that captures this
current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global
spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026.” It said a portion of Wyland's
mural would be preserved.
Wyland filed suit Monday in U.S District Court in Dallas saying that
World Cup organizers, along with the building's owner and management
company, painted over his mural without his consent or even notifying
him. He says their actions violated a 1990 federal law passed to protect
visual artists from destruction of publicly displayed works.
Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit says
world soccer's governing body, FIFA, and other defendants “hastily and
irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark” to promote the World Cup.
“Though FIFA claims they were working to develop art for the host city,
in truth, they defaced an historic fixture of the host city,” the
artist's lawsuit says.
A FIFA spokesperson said Tuesday the federation “has no involvement in
this whatsoever” and referred a reporter to the tournament's local
organizing committee.
A spokesperson for the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee declined to
comment. The committee isn't named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
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A spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, which manages the
building where the mural was painted over, said in a statement that
local World Cup organizers asked Slate in March to donate the mural
space for “a new public art installation.”
“Slate is not being compensated in any way for the use of the wall
space and was told by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been
notified,” the management company's spokesperson said in an email.
Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any of the other sites
in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine
matches set to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home
of the Dallas Cowboys.
Wyland's Dallas mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was finished in
1999 and is among more than 100 similar murals known as Whaling
Walls the artist painted around the world to promote the
conservation of ocean life.
An online petition protesting the mural's destruction and calling
for protecting of public artwork in Dallas has received more than
2,600 signatures.
Wyland's lawsuit alleges violations of the Visual Artists Rights
Act, a 1990 federal law that protects artwork of “recognized
stature” even if someone else owns the physical artwork.
A judge cited that law in 2018 when he ordered a property owner to
pay a group of New York graffiti artists $6.7 million for
whitewashing dozens of their spray-painted murals on buildings that
once housed a factory in Queens. The ruling was upheld on appeal.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
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