Muslim woman wearing veil ousted from Italy museum

She refused to take off her veil and left the building, which faces Venice's Grand Canal and houses works by such 18th century Venetian masters as Giandomenico Tiepolo.

Italian anti-terrorism laws from 1975 ban people from wearing face coverings in public but they are rarely enforced in cases of Islamic veils.

Italian media reports said the room guard, who Pedrocco said was a part-time guard employed by an outside security firm, would be disciplined and risked being fired.

But the guard, whose name was not disclosed, was hailed as a hero by some in the northern Italian Veneto region, which has often been the scene of tensions between long-time residents and Islamic immigrants.

Senator Roberto Castelli, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League, asked the justice minister to make sure the guard was not disciplined or sacked "for doing his duty and making sure the law was respected".

Giancarlo Gentilini, the deputy mayor of the city of Treviso, just north of Venice, just the guard should be "given an award and not punished".