Artist Wyland has filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that FIFA’s decision to cover his mural titled “Ocean Life” violated the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), a U.S. law that safeguards artists from defacement of their works. The lawsuit seeks damages of no less than US$25 million.
Responding to the accusation on Tuesday, FIFA stated that it had “no involvement in this whatsoever and refers all inquiries on this matter to the host city committee.” The Dallas World Cup organizing committee has not yet provided any comment regarding the legal action.
Wyland’s attorney, Andrea Perez of Carrington Coleman Sloman & Blumenthal, emphasized in a statement, “This case is about the integrity of both the artwork and the law. VARA ensures that culturally important creations are treated with respect and preservation.”
Wyland originally painted the mural, also referred to as the “Whaling Wall,” in 1999. The artwork depicted whales, dolphins, and other marine life on the exterior of a downtown Dallas building.
Dallas has been selected as one of the 16 host cities for the upcoming FIFA World Cup scheduled to begin later this month. According to the lawsuit, the city’s organizing committee painted over the mural in May without reaching out to Wyland beforehand.
“In their eagerness to profit from the worldwide spotlight on Dallas during the FIFA World Cup, the defendants recklessly and permanently destroyed a civic landmark,” the lawsuit claims. “Although FIFA asserts that they were developing new art for the host city, in reality, they defaced a historic element of Dallas.”
A representative for Slate Asset Management, the owner of the building, mentioned that the committee had informed them a local artist would be producing a new artwork on the wall and that Wyland was supposedly notified about this replacement. Slate has also been named as a defendant in the case.
The case has been filed as Wyland v. Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Case No. 3:26-cv-01794.
