Pop star Kacey Musgraves has led the backlash after a popular whale mural in downtown Dallas was painted over ahead of the World Cup in June.
The ‘Whaling Wall 82’ was an 82-foot high, 164-foot wide mural of six humpback wales that had been created in 1999 by a conservationist artist called Wyland.
But ahead of the World Cup next month, where Dallas is one of the host cities, the mural has been painted over for what FIFA says will be a new piece of artwork that ‘reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026 this summer.’
Wyland, however, has insisted that he was never asked about his artwork being replaced and he now has a powerful ally in the popular country singer Musgraves, who drew attention to the situation on social media.
Sharing a link to local reporting of the incident, Musgraves wrote: ‘This makes me really sad. We suck the soul out of everything.’
According to Fox4, a North Texas FIFA committee member said that they had been in touch with Wyland over the move – something he fiercely disputes.
Kacey Musgraves has hit out at FIFA after a mural in Dallas was painted over for the World Cup
The ‘Whaling Wall 82’ was painted in 1999 by a conservationist artist called Wyland
Wyland has said FIFA is lying ‘with a capital L’ about approaching him over the mural
‘A lie with a capital L,’ he told the media outlet. ‘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. We are going to protect the other art in Dallas.’
The report adds that he believes his artwork was worth in the region of $15million and that if he gets offered money by FIFA as a settlement, he will donate it to a conservationist charity.
The fury in the community was underlined in a column in the Dallas Morning News – shared by Musgrave, who is from Texas – by Robert Wilonsky.
‘It has been drowned in blue paint from which it will likely never be rescued,’ he wrote.
‘World Cup rolls into town and suddenly the whole city belongs to FIFA. Including that mural, which didn’t sell anything except for the idea that maybe it is a good thing not to foul up everything.’
FIFA have already far from endeared themselves to the US public. Tickets for all World Cup games, from the group stage to the final, have priced out the vast majority of Americans who would otherwise be interested in going to a game.
Their prices for the first USA match, in Los Angeles against Paraguay on June 12, are at around $1,000 – so high that even President Trump admitted that while he’d like to be there, not even he would pay that much to go.
Wyland, the artist, painted the mural in 1999 but now it seems to be gone forever
Nine World Cup games are going to be staged at the AT&T Stadium from June 14
Dallas will host nine games during the competition at the home of the Cowboys. The AT&T Stadium is renamed ‘The Dallas Stadium’ for the tournament.
Some of the standout group games will be played there, including England vs Croatia, Argentina vs Austria and Holland vs Japan – which is the first World Cup game to be held in the city on June 14.
The run of Dallas games culminates with a semifinal on July 14.
But for a month of soccer games, a mural that had been in place for nearly 30 years will almost certainly never be seen again.
