What’s Going On With Downtown’s Whaling Wall Mural

A conservationist's nearly 30-year-old mural has been painted over to make way for a FIFA advertisement. Here's what we know.

By Caitlin Clark | May 17, 2026 | 9:09 pm


Wyland's downtown Dallas Whaling Wall in its prime.
courtesy of the Wyland Foundation

This post was last updated on Monday, May 25, at 5 pm.

FIFA-on-whale crime has been committed in downtown Dallas. The victim: “Whaling Wall 82” (aka “Ocean Life“), an 82-foot-high mural painted on an Akard Street building in 1999 by conservationist and artist Robert Wyland (known simply as Wyland professionally). The most likely culprit(s): Downtown Dallas Inc., the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, and Slate Asset Management, the Toronto-based owner of 505 N. Akard, which allowed the commercial building’s mural to be painted over to make way for a World Cup mural.

{snip}

Robert Wyland Files $25 Million Lawsuit for “Destruction” of his Dallas Whaling Wall

Nicholas Frank
June 8, 2026

Robert Wyland, known popularly as Wyland, painter of more than 100 large-scale “Whaling Wall” environmental conservation-themed murals in locations throughout the world, has filed a $25 million federal lawsuit against FIFA following the destruction of his mural in Dallas.

In May 2026, reports emerged that the mural, Ocean Life, which had been in place since 1999, was being painted over to make way for a mural celebrating Dallas’ status as a host city for FIFA World Cup 2026 matches. Controversy erupted when the artist claimed that he had not been contacted prior to the removal, contrary to stipulations of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) of 1990. The law states that good faith efforts to contact the artist, identified in the VARA as the “author” of the work, must be undertaken by anyone wishing to remove a permanent work of art.


The Texas Utilities Building in downtown Dallas, with most of a mural by artist Robert Wyland painted over. Photo: Jessica Fuentes

Ocean Life covered two surfaces of the Texas Utilities Building. The main face of the mural has been painted over, leaving intact a side wall depicting a leaping whale and other marine life. According to D Magazine, the wall had periodically been covered over by temporary vinyl advertisements, though the wall has been clear of advertisements since 2020.

{snip}