Sarajevo's famed architectural jewel, "City Hall", or the National Library, reopened on Friday, 22 years after it was destroyed by Bosnian Serb forces' shelling during the 1992-1995 war.

"It is the symbol of our strength to overcome the past and our hope for a better future," Sarajevo's mayor Ivo Komsic said at the opening ceremony after the sounds of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."

Egypt unveiled Thursday the 3,000 year-old tombs of two senior pharaonic military men in the famed Saqqara necropolis, one of them decorated with well-preserved reliefs depicting the afterlife.

Saqqara, roughly 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Cairo, was the burial ground for the neighbouring city of Memphis.

A photo album depicting troves of precious art works looted by the Nazis during World War II was donated Thursday to the National Archives, America's repository of historical artifacts.

The album is one of 39 "Hitler albums" -- essentially a catalogue of art confiscated by troops operating under orders from Der Fuerher.

Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians, says a meeting with Pope Francis in Jerusalem this month will help move the two churches closer to ending their nearly one-thousand-year divide.

In an interview with The Associated Press in his Istanbul office, Bartholomew also praised Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for improving rights for Christians but said pointedly, "it is not enough."

Thousands of Russian troops are marching on Red Square in the annual Victory Day parade in a proud display of the nation's military might amid the escalating tensions over Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin made no reference to the situation in Ukraine when he opened Friday's parade, focusing on the historic importance of the victory over Nazi Germany.

Standing among the towering shelves in his bookstore in the small Texas town where he grew up, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry says he has a need to be among books.

"I'm very attached to the books. I need them. I need to be among them," said McMurtry, 77, whose rare and used bookstore in Archer City contains about 200,000 volumes, while the library in his nearby home holds about 28,000.

The Norton Simon Museum has agreed to return a 10th century statue that may have been looted from a Cambodian temple during that country's genocidal civil war in the 1970s.

"Temple Wrestler," a sandstone figure missing its hands and feet, has been displayed at the museum for nearly four decades. The 5-foot (1.52-meter)-high work depicts Bhima, a heroic figure in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, in a fighting pose.

Pablo Picasso's 1932 oil painting "Le Sauvetage" sold at auction for more than $31 million on Wednesday after a bidding war at Sotheby's in New York which saw it surge past its estimated pre-sale price.

The surrealist master's enigmatic work -- which was last sold a decade ago -- went under the hammer for $31.525 million following frenzied bidding over several minutes.

Lenin's trademark flat cap and Stalin's collection of pipes are among the memorabilia on show as Russia's main historical museum opens up its long-hidden archive of once-revered relics of the Soviet leaders.

The exhibition at the State Historical Museum off Red Square shows around 1,000 objects glorifying Lenin and Stalin -- including portraits, posters and gifts from factory collectives -- as well as their personal possessions and even death masks.

Winslow Homers in the shadow of a defunct Beech-Nut baby food plant. A Rembrandt, Picasso, Rubens and Renoir up the hill from a paper mill. The founder of the Hudson River School vying for attention amid baseball memorabilia and old farm machinery.

There are plenty of treasures to be found among the collections of lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path art museums dotting upstate New York. But they're well worth the trek for anyone looking for great art in unexpected places, whether it's the rolling, bucolic countryside typical of many areas or the industrial grittiness of riverside mill towns.