ARTRestoring ‘Last Supper’: “The Last Supper,” one...

ART

Restoring ‘Last Supper’: “The Last Supper,” one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous frescoes, will undergo major restoration work starting this week and will be closed to the public until mid-1995, art officials in Milan said Monday. The famed Italian Renaissance artist painted the fresco at Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, completing it in 1497. The painting, which shows Jesus Christ surrounded by his 12 apostles during the last meal before he was crucified, has been damaged by air pollution, humidity and dust, officials said. They added that a climate control device and air purifier would be installed in the church’s refectory.

EMMY WATCH

Celebrating Nominees: Hollywood is gearing up for Sunday’s Emmy Awards with several pre-award events scheduled to fete the nominees. Among them is Saturday’s Women in Film luncheon at the Bel Age hotel, honoring this year’s record number of female nominees. At the event, Women in Film will present its first Lucy Award for Innovation in Television (named after Lucille Ball) to producers Gary David Goldberg and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, as well as a new annual Lucci Award recognizing an individual whose TV accomplishments have “previously gone unheralded.” That award is named after its first recipient, Susan Lucci of “All My Children,” who has received a slew of Emmy nominations but never collected the prize. . . . Another pre-Emmy bash, this one hosted by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and double nominee Swoozie Kurtz (“Sisters,” “And the Band Played On”), is set for Thursday at the Westwood Marquis Hotel. Among the more than 40 actors scheduled to attend are Dennis Franz, Jane Seymour, Shelley Fabares, Estelle Getty, Sela Ward, Tim Curry and Alex Rocco, as well as Emmy co-hosts Patricia Richardson and Ellen DeGeneres.

* More News: Cable’s E! Entertainment Television is airing four specials devoted to the Emmys, including an in-depth look at the nominees (airing Sunday at 11 a.m.), a live pre-show and post-show (which will expand Emmy-night coverage from 6 p.m. all the way to 1 a.m.), and a highlights special planned to air at 7:30 a.m. on Monday. Meanwhile, comedians Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling and Michael Richards are the latest presenters announced for Sunday’s award show, which airs at 8 p.m. on ABC.

LEGAL FILE

Bank on the Block: Actress Kim Basinger’s bank is up for sale in an effort to ease her financial straits. The Bank of Braselton, the smallest in Georgia with $6.25 million in assets, will be auctioned Sept. 22 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles. Basinger went into bankruptcy last year after Main Line Pictures won an $8.1-million judgment against her for pulling out of its film “Boxing Helena.” The actress paid a reported $20 million in 1989 for 1,700 acres of Braselton, near her hometown of Athens. Her bankruptcy petition puts the value of the town at $900,000.

* Restraining Order: Whitney Houston, star of “The Bodyguard,” found life imitating art when she had to get a restraining order against a man she says is stalking her. The order was issued against Charles Gilberg, who claims to be the father of Houston’s daughter and has harassed the singer’s family at their church. It was the second time Houston has obtained a restraining order against him.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Music in the Park: About 700 people were on hand Sunday evening for a free Symphony in the Glen concert at Mid-Wilshire’s Pan-Pacific Park. The 40-member professional ensemble, composed primarily of studio musicians, played music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and others to concert-goers filling the park’s amphitheater and surrounding hillside. Founded and led by conductor Arthur B. Rubinstein, who has composed music for more than 200 films and TV shows, the orchestra is concluding its first season of free classical concerts in Los Angeles parks. Rubinstein says food collections at the events have resulted in donations of more than 1,000 cans of food so far. This season’s final concert, also set for Pan-Pacific Park, is expected in October, and fund-raising has already begun for an expanded 1995 season.

* A Papal Release: Cassette and CD versions of “The Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust,” a landmark April 7 concert held at the Vatican, will be released today on Justice Records, followed on Oct. 26 by a video documentary from Rhino Home Video. The concert, which featured the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London and the Choir of St. Peter’s Basilica (singing in Hebrew for the first time), underscored the Catholic Church’s recent official recognition of the state of Israel and acknowledgment of the Holocaust.