A red notebook of 33 pencil drawings by Pablo Picasso stolen from the Paris museum bearing his name will be hard for thieves to sell, France's culture minister says.

The theft was discovered Tuesday by a museum employee. The notebook had been kept in a second-floor glass display case that can only be opened with a special instrument.

''It's difficult to sell, a notebook of pencil sketches made in the 1920s,'' Culture Minister Christine Albanel says. ``It seems bizarre, to say the least.''

About 1,000 people a day visit the museum. Albanel says four security personnel make rounds in six exhibition rooms. The sketchbook, shiny red with the word ''Album'' inscribed in gold on the front, dates from 1917 to 1924. It measures 6.3 by 9.5 inches.

Museum head Anne Baldassari says she doesn't think the theft was commissioned and would not speculate about the notebook's value, which a police official says is likely worth the equivalent of $11 million.

In August 2007, French investigators recovered two Picasso paintings and a drawing worth more than $66 million stolen from the artist's granddaughter's house six months earlier. Two of three suspects arrested were carrying the rolled-up canvases as police closed in.

-- CHARLOTTE COULON

Fans at Tuesday night's Grand Ole Opry shows got a sneak peek of some specially designed guitars.

The Epiphone acoustic guitars were decorated by some of country music's biggest stars, including Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Charlie Daniels and Pam Tillis.

The guitars were auctioned Friday to benefit the Opry Trust Fund, which helps people in the country-music industry who fall on hard times.

Associated Press

Berlin's Pergamon museum has announced that it has acquired on permanent loan the Keir collection, 1,500 pieces of Islamic art from the eighth to 17th centuries.

The Museum for Islamic Art, a branch of the Pergamon, says in a statement that the collection has been deeded to the museum by 91-year-old collector Edmund de Unger.

Unger, born in Budapest, moved to England after World War II and began collecting in the 1970s. He says in the statement that he wants to share the tapestries, carpets, bronze objects and rare books with other Islamic-art enthusiasts.

Select pieces will be put on display in December. The rest of the collection will be transferred to Berlin after Unger's death.

'The phrase `Islamic Art' is somewhat misleading,'' museum director StefanWeber says. ``There are also many important secular bronze and ceramic pieces and manuscripts.''

Founded in 1904, the Museum for Islamic Art houses a permanent exhibition dedicated to the art of Islamic people through the 17th century, with a focus on works from the Middle East.

-- MARY LANE

Associated Press

Organizers say this year's Venice Film Festival will open with Baaria, a movie by Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore about his native Sicilian town. The film follows three generations living through the 20th century in Bagheria, or Baaria in the local dialect.

For the first time in two decades an Italian film headlines the festival, which opens its 66th edition Sept. 2 and ends Sept. 12 with the awarding of the coveted Golden Lion.

The 53-year-old Tornatore won an Oscar for best foreign film in 1990 with Cinema Paradiso. He was also nominated in 1996 for The Star Maker.

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