An artist is suing FIFA for $25 million for covering up his mural in downtown Dallas ahead of the World Cup.
Robert Wyland, a conservation artist who goes by Wyland, filed a 13-page federal suit in the Northern District of Texas on Monday claiming that FIFA and building managers violated the Visual Artists Rights Act by painting over the mural without telling him or getting his consent. Wyland painted the giant scene of whales in 1999 as part of an eventual series of 100 murals highlighting marine life in landlocked cities.
Last month, most of the mural was covered by solid blue paint. The president of the local World Cup organizing committee, Monica Paul, told The New York Times that the group’s goal was for “Dallas artists to participate, bring their energy, their passion, have a local impact in the arts space through the World Cup.”
Dallas is hosting nine matches in the World Cup, the most of any of the 16 tournament host cities. The matches will be at the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, about 20 miles from downtown Dallas.
“In their zeal to capitalize on the international attention on Dallas during the FIFA World Cup, Defendants hastily and irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark,” the suit says. “Though FIFA claims they were working to develop art for the host city, in truth, they defaced an historic fixture of the host city.”
The Dallas World Cup organizing committee declined to comment on the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for FIFA tells FOS: “Please note that FIFA has no involvement in this whatsoever and refers all inquiries on this matter to the host city committee.”
FIFA and two of its subsidiaries are defendants in the lawsuit, and the Dallas host committee is not. The other two defendants are the building’s property and management companies. The management company had claimed that Wyland knew about the mural.
“They picked the wrong artist,” Wyland told Fox 4 last month. “I can tell you that. I am going to go after them and go after them hard. I am going to ask the community of Dallas to stay with me. We are going to protect the other art in Dallas.”
The artist also told the local outlet that any financial compensation through a lawsuit would be donated to local communities, school arts programs, and conversation.
The lawsuit says the mural in 1999 was “dedicated by” Herschel Walker and JCPenney. Walker, a Heisman trophy winner and former NFL player, is a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, and currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas. Trump is close with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and recipient of the global governing body’s inaugural Peace Prize.
