Over the past three decades, laser cleaning has become a successful, widely accepted art restoration technique and is now commonly used in many practical applications. The most significant of these results were achieved in the restoration of stone artifacts. Laser cleaning has proven to be highly effective and environmentally safe and also has many other advantages over traditional restoration techniques.

The situation is currently much more complex for cleaning metal artifacts. Despite many highly successful examples in which laser restoration has been successfully used with metal artifacts, restoration specialists have observed several undesirable side effects in certain cases. Problems that appear intrinsic to the laser cleaning of metal surfaces include localized microscopic melting and surface discoloration.

These issues are most common in laser cleaning of copper artifacts. Since decorative and useful items made of copper and copper alloys are common in most museum collections around the world (because such materials are available from many historical epochs), determining the reason for the surface discoloration of such items is of great practical importance

In the restoration process, laser cleaning has been used with satisfying results in for example stone conservation to remove encrustation. Alongside the aesthetically pleasing results, it is relevant to determine that laser cleaning does not have any adverse effects.

Compared to the more traditional techniques, laser cleaning has many additional advantages. The diameter of the laser beam can be regulated so that areas of different dimensions can be treated. There is no physical contact between the object to be cleaned and the laser equipment. This aspect can be really relevant in treating fragile materials.