A mural of Los Angeles Football Club forward Son Heung-min that was supposed to be unveiled in Koreatown during the World Cup still hasn’t gone up.
The mural, planned for the side of The Line Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard, was originally set to debut in February alongside the launch of LAFC’s 2026/27 jersey. The club later moved the unveiling to June.
“The mural unveil was rescheduled to June to better align with World Cup festivities,” LAFC spokesperson Danny Sanchez said in March. Since then, he has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the delay or whether LAFC still plans to move forward with the mural.
Dave Young Kim, the artist commissioned to paint the mural, told The LA Local he was told the project had been postponed indefinitely and that there was no new date. Kim said no work has started on the mural.
The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs approved a revised mural application May 22, clearing the project to move forward, according to Gabriel Cifarelli, a department spokesperson.
The revised application proposes a 23-foot-by-91-foot painted portrait of Son on the side of The Line Hotel. The project has an estimated budget of $80,000 and would remain in place for at least two years. The application describes it as an “art portrait to highlight the local Koreatown sports hero Son Heung-min,” noting that the South Korean star plays forward for LAFC and is captain of his country’s national team.
A rendering submitted with the application shows Son in an LAFC jersey without the club logo, set against a black-and-gold backdrop with stylized clouds and a haetae, a mythical guardian creature from Korean folklore.
The mural is intended to reflect his and Son’s shared Korean heritage by incorporating traditional Korean motifs and symbols and emphasizing the cultural side of the athlete, Kim said in February.
In March, Cifarelli said the Department of Cultural Affairs could not issue a notice to proceed because the first application was “ineligible and incomplete” under the city’s mural rules.
The department initially could not approve the mural because the rendering included trademarked logos, which are considered commercial content, and because part of the mural extended more than 100 feet above the ground, Cifarelli said.
Kim previously painted a mural of Son on the side of the Crosby building in Koreatown last fall. That mural was up for only a few weeks.
