Cultural heritage protection and safeguarding is a clear problem for the worldwide community because the legacy and identity of communities has to be kept alive and transmitted to future generations. To this end optical technologies have an important role to play in defining state-of-the-art conservation, guiding restauration, and exploring new opportunities in virtual and augmented realities where other complementary information can be merged. ENEA has developed different laser-based sensors for remote and local diagnostics that have already been deployed in field campaigns implementing different spectroscopic techniques that supply prompt information in real time and are non-destructive and non-invasive as regards the artifact being studied. Here the technical characteristics and performances of the tools are briefly described, and examples provided of monitoring applications of paintings, statues, woods, metals and structural observations (tensions and vibrations).