The Wyland mural sat abandoned for nearly 30 years until workers began painting it on the wall last month to promote the World Cup.
Published June 3, 2026
An American artist who painted a life-size whale mural on a building in downtown Dallas has filed a $25 million lawsuit against FIFA and other defendants, accusing them of illegally overwriting his work to promote the city’s 2026 World Cup games.
Robert Wyland, who usually goes by his last name only, said he hand-painted the vast mural, which spans about 1,580 square meters (17,000 square feet) across two walls of the building.
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Wyland filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Dallas, accusing World Cup organizers, the building’s owner and management company of painting over the mural without his consent or notice.
He said their actions violate a 1990 federal law that protects visual artists from destruction of their published works.
Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit alleges that the International Soccer Federation, FIFA and other defendants “hastily and irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark” to promote the World Cup.
“While FIFA claims to be working to advance the arts on behalf of the host city, it actually desecrated the host city’s historic buildings,” the artists’ lawsuit states.
The mural had been left untouched for nearly 30 years until crews began painting it over last month, sparking an uproar among residents who admired the mural’s grand scale and ocean conservation message.
The region’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that new artwork is planned to replace Wyland’s mural, “capturing this current historical moment and reflecting the energy, unity and world spirit surrounding the 2026 World Cup.”
Some of Wyland’s murals will be preserved.
A FIFA spokesperson told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the federation had “no involvement in this matter” and referred reporters to the tournament’s local organizing committee.
A spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, which manages the building where the mural is painted, said in a statement that local World Cup organizers asked Slate in March to donate mural space for a “new public art installation.”
“Slate has not been compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and we have been informed that the local organization has notified Mr. Wyland,” a spokesperson for the management company said in an email.
Dallas has hosted more games than any other venue in the World Cup, which is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, with nine games scheduled to be played at AT&T Stadium outside Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Wyland’s Dallas mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was completed in 1999 and is one of more than 100 similar murals known as “whaling walls” that Wyland has painted around the world to promote the conservation of marine life.
An online petition protesting the mural’s destruction and calling for the protection of Dallas’ public artwork has garnered more than 2,600 signatures.
Wyland’s lawsuit alleged that it violates the Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 federal law that protects artwork of “admitted stature” even when the physical artwork is owned by someone else.
A judge cited the law in 2018 when he ordered a property owner to pay a group of New York graffiti artists who whitewashed dozens of spray-painted murals on a building that once housed a factory in Queens. This judgment was upheld on appeal.
