At 500 years old, the Mona Lisa started showing her age. The wood panels around her have begun to warp, and to find out what’s happening and what needs to be done to preserve this icon of western art, the folks at the Louvre are calling on art conservationists.

Trained in no less than history, art history, archeology, chemistry, materials science, art and artifact technology, craft skills, preventive maintenance, treatment techniques, conservation history, and ethics and philosophy, art conservationists are the mechanics that help keep our cultural heritage running. Students in art conservation programs specialize in areas such as textiles, wood, paper, photographs, library materials, paintings, and natural-science collections and anthropological, historical, decorative, and art objects of all materials. Professionals in this field fuse their aesthetic sensibilities with technical skill and a firm grasp of context.