A book about Greek antiquities has been returned to an Australian public library 150 years overdue, with water damage from being bricked behind a fireplace.
The book was returned to the library in the coastal town of Kiama, New South Wales, last week by a local named Ross Simmons, who found it inside a crate behind a sealed fireplace during a recent home renovation, Kiama Library manager Michelle Hudson told The Associated Press.
“We’ve never had anything that old come back to us,” she said Thursday.
“I follow lots of libraries on social media and often you’ll get things that are maybe 30 or 40 years old when they’re cleaning out estates and stuff like that.”
Simmons told The Associated Press that he surmised the book had been borrowed by his great-great-grandfather John Simmons, who previously owned the house where it was found.
“I’m making an assumption,” he said, “he was in residence in the cottage around about that time, [in the late 1800s] and his children were probably too young.”
The book, titled Antiquities of Athens, is marked with the number 506 and likely belonged to the library’s original collection of roughly 1,000 books. It was published in 1858, 14 years before the library opened in 1872. Hudson said she suspects the book was lost shortly after that.
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The book was published in London’s Covent Garden by Henry George Bohn, a bookseller, publisher and collector of art and porcelain.
Records of borrowers from the 1870s were lost, Hudson explained, so there is no way to verify exactly when it was taken out or by whom.
“Unfortunately, we have a missing link. There’s nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was,” she said.
Library rules in the 1870s stated that a book had to be returned and an overdue debt paid before another book could be borrowed.
“Maybe that’s why they never returned it to us,” Hudson added.
In this photo provided by Jane Thompson, library manager Michelle Hudson holds the book ‘Antiquities of Athens’ after its return in Kiama, Australia, on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, an estimated 150 years late.
(Jane Thompson via AP
Rules of the day also stated that people had to be able to read to borrow a book and that up to three books could be borrowed by households in which at least six members were literate. Proof of literacy is no longer a requirement to borrow a book.
Nineteenth-century rules also stipulated that people who arrived at the library showing signs of intoxication were not permitted to borrow books.
Simmons told the AP he did not know why his great-great-grandfather, an English immigrant who served in the municipal government, did not return the book, but that he was not concerned about having to deal with an angry librarian or being held responsible for any late fees.
“I’ve spent a lifetime dealing with irate customers and being irate with customers… stick to your guns and say do your worst,” the 77-year-old said.
The returned book will be displayed in the library’s local history collection.
“We’re not going to allow it to go back out again. We don’t want to wait another 150 years for this book to be returned,” Hudson said.
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