The copper lamp is coming home — after 42 years
In 1983, A/S Sulitjelma Gruber demanded that a historic copper lamp be handed over to the Sulitjelma Mining Museum. Now, over four decades later, it is finally happening.
A lamp with a long travel history
The copper lamp was first in Sweden, and in 1937 it was hung in A/S Sulitjelma Gruber's head office in Oslo. In 1953 it was transported to Sulitjelma for storage, but disappeared without a trace shortly afterwards.
The mystery was solved in an unexpected way. When the Sulitjelma tourist and training center published a color brochure in 1983, the lamp appeared in one of the pictures. A/S Sulitjelma Gruber reacted immediately and demanded the lamp back. In a letter dated 12. July In 1983, the company determined that the lamp was the property of the company through its protected monogram, and that it should be handed over to the Sulitjelma Mining Museum "as soon as possible."
It was Bertel Malden, a loyal employee at A/S Sulitjelma Gruber's head office in Oslo throughout his professional life, who raised the alarm when the lamp appeared in the brochure. He had himself packaged and sent the lamp to Sulitjelma in 1953, and recognized it immediately. Malden initiated the process to return the lamp to its rightful owner.
The demand that was never forgotten
When the lamp was still not returned, a new letter followed on 31 August of the same year. The tone was sharper. A/S Sulitjelma Gruber described the demand for its return as something that one would “never forget or waive”. An agreement was eventually reached that the museum’s ownership rights were recognised, but that the lamp could temporarily remain hanging in the hotel’s fireplace room, as long as it was “for public viewing”.
The Sulitjelma tourist and training center changed owners and operating methods several times over the years. The lamp followed, through hotel and periods as an asylum reception center. But the requirement from 1983 was never waived.
For the last period, the copper lamp has been locked in a room next to the fireplace room at Sulitjelma Hotel,
Ready for museum
It was Wenche Spjelkavik, deputy chairman of the Sulitjelma Historical Society, who in February 2026 found the crucial papers about the copper lamp under scrapping in the historical society's archives, and who urged the Nordlandsmuseet to take up the matter again. In a telephone conversation on 10 March 2026, Kjell Basse Lund confirmed that he attended a meeting where all parties recognized that the Sulitjelma Mining Museum had ownership of the copper lamp. Lund represented the Sulitjelma Miners' Association, and the meeting also brought together the head of the Norwegian Workers' Association, Harald Øverås, and the Sulitjelma Tourist and Training Centre. The Nordlandsmuseet requested that the lamp be transferred to the Sulitjelma Mining Museum, and received a positive response.
- The copper lamp is one of the great jewels from Sulitjelma's heyday. It will be great to have it back in place with light in it. It also has an exciting story behind it, it disappeared for many years, and no one really knows why, sums up John Gunnar Olsen, at the Sulitjelma Mining Museum.
After so many years, the lamp needs professional cleaning and conservation. The copper lamp has faux marble in the side panels, and bears the mark of many years in the smoky atmosphere of the fireplace room. The lamp has now been delivered to the Sulitjelma Mining Museum, where it will be preserved and exhibited in a professionally responsible manner, as was always the intention.
The copper lamp is packed for transport to the Sulitjelma Mining Museum.
