Environmental artist Wyland filed a $25 million federal lawsuit against FIFA late Monday in Dallas after his eight-story whale mural was painted over with blue paint to make room for a World Cup advertisement.
The legal complaint, filed in the U. S.
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District Court in Dallas, alleges the destruction of "Whaling Wall 82" violated the federal Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA).
The suit also names the building's managers and owners, including Toronto-based Slate Asset Management, as defendants for authorizing the defacement without proper notice or consent from the artist.
According to the lawsuit, crews began covering the 1999 public artwork at 505 North Akard Street last month, leaving only a small portion untouched.
The World Cup promotion project has since been halted by a cease-and-desist letter sent on May 18 to the property owners, the city, and the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee.
The lawsuit blames FIFA for authorizing the destruction, stating the organization defaced a historic fixture of the host city.
Andrea Perez, who heads the art law section at Carrington Coleman, said the legal team meticulously calculated the multi-million dollar figure based on the history and scale of the public installation.
"We weren't just throwing out numbers," Perez said.
The law firm chose to focus on FIFA and the building owners, though they noted the local organizing committee could be added later.
Perez said international football operations dictated the structural setup of the local promotional entities.
The Wyland Foundation emphasizes that this litigation represents a rare stand for the legal protection of public visual arts.
"This is believed to be one of the largest lawsuits ever brought regarding the protection of works of recognized visual art," the foundation stated.
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The 69-year-old artist said he received no prior communication from city entities or property managers regarding the erasure of his work.
"They purposely destroyed it," Wyland said.
He expressed frustration that an international sports body would dismantle a piece of conservation history he had gifted to the community.
"This was a gift to the city.
I painted 103 of these murals, and to see it destroyed by FIFA doesn't make any sense to me, and we're not going to stand for it," Wyland said.
Legal counsel Monica Latin stated via email that the incident represented a clear breach of existing federal artistic protections.
Perez added, "If a well-known public artwork can be destroyed without notice or accountability, what does that mean for every lesser-known artist and every community that relies on public art to define its identity?"
The attorneys hope the federal case establishes a strict precedent for how municipalities and corporations treat existing community landmarks.
"This lawsuit is about drawing a line so that artists, communities, and property owners take these works seriously before they are gone," Perez said.
The legal dispute emerged after nonprofit organization Downtown Dallas Inc. suggested the site to the tournament organizing committee 18 months ago, believing the fading mural was past its useful life.
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City officials noted the artwork was not part of Dallas' official public collection.
