The artist who painted a giant mural of life-size swimming whales on a downtown Dallas building has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the world’s soccer governing body and others. He says they illegally painted over his work to promote the city’s upcoming World Cup matches.
Artist Wyland says he hand-painted the expansive mural, which spanned approximately 1,580 square feet across two walls of the building.
The mural stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting over it last month. This caused an uproar among residents who admired the mural’s grand scale and its message of ocean conservation.
The area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that in place of Wyland’s mural, new artworks are planned «capturing this current historic moment and reflecting the energy, unity and global spirit surrounding the 2026 World Cup.» It said part of Wyland’s mural would be preserved.
Wyland filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Dallas, alleging that World Cup organizers, along with the building’s owner and management company, painted over his mural without his permission or even notifying him.
Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit says FIFA and other defendants “hastily and irrevocably destroyed a social landmark” to promote the World Cup.
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“Although FIFA claims that they were developing art for the host city, in reality they violated a historic feature of the host city,” the artist’s lawsuit states.
A FIFA spokesperson said on Tuesday that the federation «is not involved in this in any way» 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 is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
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 compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and was advised by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been notified,” the management company spokesperson said in an email.
Dallas will host more World Cup matches than any other venue during the event co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, with nine matches to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Wyland’s mural in Dallas, titled «Whaling Wall 82», was completed in 1999 and is among more than 100 similar murals known as Whaling Walls that the artist painted around the world to promote the conservation of ocean life.
An online petition protesting the mural’s destruction and calling for protection of public works of art 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 works of art of «recognized status» 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 confirmed on appeal.
Published on June 3, 2026
