Forensic experts have begun studying two sets of bones at a Vatican City cemetery where a missing teenage girl's family was tipped to look for her.

A Holy See spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, said on Saturday that the analyses are being done at the Pontifical Teutonic College, where the bones were found under a stone slab last week.

The missing girl, Emanuela Orlandi, vanished in 1983 at age 15 after she left her family's apartment in Vatican City for a music lesson in Rome.

Her family' lawyer received an anonymous tip that Emanuela might be buried near the 19th century tombs of two German princesses in the Teutonic College cemetery.

The tombs turned out to be empty, but the bones were found during a search of adjoining areas.