The destruction of a downtown Dallas mural last week has sparked reactions from prominent voices and community members alike.
Local World Cup organizers began painting over Robert Wyland’s 82-foot-tall by 164-foot-wide whale mural with bright blue paint to create a blank slate for a new mural for the World Cup.
The destruction of a downtown Dallas mural last week has sparked reactions from prominent voices and community members alike.
The North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee had workers begin painting over Robert Wyland’s 82-foot-tall by 164-foot-wide whale mural with bright blue paint to create a blank slate for a new World Cup mural.
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Shortly after the destruction began gaining traction on social media, Texas native and country pop star Kacey Musgraves took to Instagram to proclaim, “This makes me really sad. We suck the soul out of everything.”
Wyland himself condemned the destruction, which he says blindsided him
“Now, I couldn’t be more sad,” Wyland told Dallas Morning News Editorial Columnist Robert Wilonsky on Thursday. “It can’t be restored now. No matter what. To see it destroyed by FIFA doesn’t make any sense to me.”
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“They picked the wrong artist, 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,” Wyland told The New York Post.
Community members have also spoken out against the destruction. Joshua Hurston, a senior at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, recently started a petition to “Bring a new Whale Mural to Dallas and Protect Public Art.” Currently, the petition has 685 signatures.
The petition asks that Wyland be allowed to paint a new, permanent downtown mural and for Dallas City Council to ensure no more public art is erased without open hearings, the high schooler wrote on Change.org.
“It’s important to let Dallas know that we are fighting for culture over capitalism!” the petition reads. “Dallas leadership continues to favor short-term profits over lasting public art and the preservation of our history.”
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Other North Texans took to social media to express their dismay over the destruction.
“The ONLY way to correct this is to allow him to create ANOTHER mural and it must be legally protected indefinitely,” wrote Brandon Johnson in the comments section of a post on The Dallas Morning News’ Facebook page about the mural’s destruction.
Another commenter, Pat Novak, wrote: “It’s called common sense. You don’t suggest painting over original iconic artwork. No excuses!”
Wyland painted the downtown mural of humpback whales in 1999, one of about 100 for his “Whaling Walls” series. The mural covered the southwestern walls of a building at 505 N. Akard St.
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Covered for several years by advertising, the mural was rediscovered in 2020 when ads were removed.
The North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee worked with Downtown Dallas Inc. to find spots for artwork commemorating the World CupIn a statement, the FIFA committtee told Wilonsky it recognizes “the cultural and historical significance” of the mural, and “with great respect for Wyland’s legacy, a portion of the original mural will remain preserved as a tribute to its lasting impact on the city.”
The committee has not yet announced when the new mural will be painted or who the artist will be.
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Related: Wilonsky: It took a lot of people making a lot of mistakes to erase Wyland’s whales in Dallas
CLARIFICATION: 3:20 p.m. Tuesday, May 19, 2026 This story was edited to clarify that the decision to cover Wyland’s mural was made by the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee. Earlier versions of this story attributed the decision to FIFA.