An American artist has filed a $25 million lawsuit against FIFA and other defendants, alleging they illegally painted over his life-size whale mural on a building in downtown Dallas to promote 2026 World Cup matches.
Robert Wyland, known mononymously as Wyland, said he personally painted the sprawling mural covering roughly 1,580 square meters on two walls of a building. Titled Whaling Wall 82 and completed in 1999, it is one of more than 100 similar murals he has painted worldwide to promote ocean conservation.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Dallas, argues that the World Cup organizing committee, the building owner and its management company painted over the mural without his consent or even notice. The act is alleged to violate the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, a federal law protecting publicly displayed artworks from destruction.
Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. The complaint states: “FIFA and the defendants hastily and irreparably destroyed a civic icon to promote the World Cup.” Wyland added: “While FIFA claims to be developing art for the host city, in reality they have defaced a historical landmark of the city.”
The mural had stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting over it last month, sparking outrage among community members who admired its grand scale and ocean-conservation message.
The local World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that in place of Wyland’s mural, they plan to install new artwork “that captures the current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity and global spirit surrounding the 2026 World Cup.” They also said part of Wyland’s mural will be preserved.
A FIFA spokesperson told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the world soccer governing body “has nothing to do with this matter” and referred reporters to the local organizing committee. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, the company that manages the building where the mural was painted over, said the local World Cup organizers approached them in March to donate wall space for “a new public art installation.”
“Slate was not compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and was informed by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been given prior notice,” the management company spokesperson said in an email.
Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any other venue among the co-hosts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine games scheduled at AT&T Stadium in the suburb of Arlington.
An online petition protesting the destruction of the mural and calling for protection of public art in Dallas has garnered over 2,600 signatures.
The lawsuit invokes the Visual Artists Rights Act, a law that in 2018 a judge applied to order a property owner to compensate a group of New York graffiti artists for painting over dozens of their murals on warehouses in Queens. That ruling was upheld on appeal.
