Municipal police guarded a controversial statue in Milan of late Italian journalist Indro Montanelli overnight after it was attacked by vandals at the weekend.
Montanelli is widely considered a great of Italian journalism but anti-fascist groups want the statue taken down because he bought and 'married' a 12-year-old Eritrean girl during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1936.
A left wing student group claimed responsibility for the attack on the statue on the night between Saturday and Sunday, when they throw red paint over it and scribbled graffiti on it.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has said that, while Montanelli made mistakes, he does not think the statue located in the Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli (Indro Montanelli Public Gardens) should be knocked down.
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