In an effort to avert what what could be an imminent disaster in the realm of wood panel painting, the Getty Foundation has awarded a $630,000 grant to help train researchers to preserve Hubert and Jan van Eycks The Mystic Lamb (the also known at the Ghent Altarpiece), 1432, and Giorgio Vasaris 1546, The Last Supper.

According to officials at the Los Angeles foundation, the world's few remaining conservators who specialize in wood-panel painting are set to retire in the next few years, meaning that many masterworks could be in danger of having no trained specialists to care for them. The new grants, which will go to the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro, in Florence, Italy, are initended to train the next generation of conservators.

Painting on wood panels was a technique favored by many painters from the late 12th through the 17th century, utilized by artists like Leonardo, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Duccio. While experts are able to help prevent and treat the warping and cracking that can occur in wood, their numbers have dwindled largely due to the years it takes to master the methods required to preserve the paintings.