1. It is always important to clean any spillage that may have occured as soon as it happens.
For example if you spills liquids or candle wax by accident on the surface of your marble fireplace, you should clean the liquid or candle wax from the marble as soon as possible, this ensures that the liquid is not absorbed by the marble which ay cause irrepairable damage, by not allowing anything to absorbed into the material you are ensuring that there is no discolouration or staining. Taking care of a marble fireplace is very similar to the care you would take when looking after wooden furniture or wooden flooring, the less time liquids are in contact with an object the less likely it is to cause a permanent stain.
2. It is always important to ensure that there are no sharp or rough objects placed directly on the fireplace.
Sharp or rough edges could scrape or pierce the surface of the marble, this would be a bad thing as the broken surface would be more susceptible to staining if liquids came in contact with the broken area of marble, also the look for your marble fireplace and its glossy nature would be impaired as scratches and blemishes become very noticible when light shines on your fireplace.
If you would like to place objects on your fireplace, it is advisable to use some sort of felt padding under the objects, this will help reduce scratches and scrapes.
as with any furniture, Marble fireplaces can be kept as good as new if cared for.