destruction

June 17 (UPI) — Peru’s Ministry of Culture denounced the total destruction of the Triple Spiral pre-Hispanic geoglyph, a figure more than 1,000 years old linked to water worship, located within a protected archaeological zone in the north of the country.

The agency said specialists and National Police officers confirmed the intentional removal of the geoglyph through manual alteration of the terrain in the Quebrada Santo Domingo Archaeological Zone, in the district of Laredo, La Libertad region, about 350 miles north of Lima.

“The sequence of events suggests that this attack may constitute retaliation against the recovery and protection actions carried out by the state in defense of cultural heritage,” the ministry said in a statement.

The destruction occurred just days after an operation conducted by cultural, municipal and police authorities to evict illegal occupants who had installed makeshift structures within the Quebrada Santo Domingo Archaeological Zone.

During the operation, authorities removed improvised shacks and fences and detected suspected illegal agricultural activities inside the protected area. They are also investigating the possible clandestine installation of pipelines to extract water from the Chavimochic canal, one of Peru’s most important irrigation and hydraulic infrastructure megaprojects.

Authorities also identified five individuals who claimed to be guarding the land on behalf of an alleged possessor. The Decentralized Directorate of Culture said those individuals are part of the investigation being conducted by prosecutors.

The Triple Spiral was considered one of the principal archaeological symbols of Quebrada Santo Domingo.

The figure measured more than 65 feet meters in length and 19 feet in width and had been associated by researchers with ceremonial practices related to the management and worship of water among pre-Hispanic societies on Peru’s northern coast.

Sandra Barrantes, deputy director of the Decentralized Directorate of Culture of La Libertad, described the incident as an “irreparable loss” for Peru and for the world’s cultural heritage, according to Noticias RPP.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation to identify those responsible and determine possible administrative, civil and criminal penalties.

Quebrada Santo Domingo covers more than 1,500 hectares protected by the state and preserves evidence of human occupation from approximately 11,000 years ago through the 15th century.

The complex contains petroglyphs, ceremonial roads and remains associated with the Cupisnique, Moche and Chimu cultures.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the Triple Spiral was one of the site’s most representative features, and its cultural significance had been compared to that of the famous Nazca geoglyphs in southern Peru. Its destruction completely erased archaeological evidence linked to the worship and management of water in ancient societies on Peru’s northern coast.

The artist who painted a giant mural on a building in downtown Dallas of life-sized swimming whales has filed a $25 million lawsuit against soccer’s international governing body and others, saying they illegally painted over his work to promote the city’s upcoming World Cup matches.

The artist Wyland says he hand-painted the sprawling mural that covered roughly 17,000 square feet across two of the building’s walls.

The mural stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting over it last month, causing an uproar among residents who admired the mural’s grand scale and message of ocean conservation.

The area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that, in place of Wyland’s mural, new artwork is planned “that captures this current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026.” It said a portion of Wyland’s mural would be preserved.

Wyland filed suit Monday in U.S District Court in Dallas saying that World Cup organizers, along with the building’s owner and management company, painted over his mural without his consent or even notifying him. He says their actions violated a 1990 federal law passed to protect visual artists from destruction of publicly displayed works.

Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit says world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, and other defendants “hastily and irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark” to promote the World Cup.

“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 artist’s lawsuit says.

A FIFA spokesperson said Tuesday the federation “has no involvement in this whatsoever” and referred a reporter to the tournament’s local organizing committee.

A spokesperson for the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee declined to comment. The committee isn’t named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, which manages the building where the mural was painted over, said in a statement that local World Cup organizers asked Slate in March to donate the mural space for “a new public art installation.”

“Slate is not being compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and was told by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been notified,” the management company’s spokesperson said in an email.

Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any of the other sites in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine matches set to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

Wyland’s Dallas mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was finished in 1999 and is among more than 100 similar murals known as Whaling Walls the artist painted around the world to promote the conservation of ocean life.

An online petition protesting the mural’s destruction and calling for protecting of public artwork in Dallas has received more than 2,600 signatures.

Wyland’s lawsuit alleges violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 federal law that protects artwork of “recognized stature” even if someone else owns the physical artwork.

A judge cited that law in 2018 when he ordered a property owner to pay a group of New York graffiti artists $6.7 million for whitewashing dozens of their spray-painted murals on buildings that once housed a factory in Queens. The ruling was upheld on appeal.

Bynum writes for the Associated Press. Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga.

Overnight Israeli strikes devastated the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza despite an ongoing ceasefire, injuring dozens. The strikes targeted residential areas, leaving behind piles of rubble. Israel has now destroyed or damaged around 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.

Satellite images taken on April 16 reveal the massive scale of damage to the towns of al-Qozah and Beit Lif in south Lebanon, following the Israeli military’s ground invasion and sustained attacks on the south.