The staff of the Laboratory are engaged primarily in all the tasks directly linked to the maintenance of the works present in the Vatican Museums: movement, emergency interventions, monitoring of the works, preparation of operations necessary for the loan of sculptures for external exhibitions, accompanying works on loan, and assistance in interventions in contexts that could represent a risk for the works present there.
Given that some of the works to be treated cannot be transported, or would be potentially at risk if moved, restoration activity is not limited to works carried out within the Laboratory, but is also carried out in on-site workshops set up within the Galleries of the Museum, such as the restoration of the Biga or of the Sarcophagus of the two brothers.
The activities of the Laboratory also include the technical supervision of works on stone materials in archaeological excavation sites, such as those of the Necropolis of Via Triumphalis and the Basilica of St. Paul.
The Laboratory is also responsible for overseeing restoration works carried out by external professionals, both in the Museum and in the entire territory of the Vatican City. These can include important and demanding works such as the restoration of Arnolfo Di Cambio's Ciborium in the Basilica of St. Paul, or the sculptures and Bernini's colonnade in St. Peter's Square, defined indeed as the “Sistine Chapel of the Stone Materials Restoration Laboratory”. In the case of restoration carried out with the assistance of specialised external firms, the Laboratory provides them with protocols and basic guidelines for the various working phases. This procedure ensures that the philological, methodological and scientific indications of conservation, applied to all the works in stone materials conserved in Vatican City State, maintain a common identity.