A library in Kiama, Australia, has received back a book on Greek architecture roughly 150 years after it was due, following its discovery bricked into a sealed fireplace during a home renovation. The find was reported by ClickOrlando.com.
Local resident Ross Simmons found the 1858 edition of The Antiquities of Athens inside a tea chest that had been walled up with bricks in a sealed fireplace. Simmons believes his great-great-grandfather, John Simmons, who owned the house in the 1870s, may have taken the book from the Kiama library around the time it opened, when the title was one of the first in its catalogue.
Estimated fine tops 28,000 Australian dollars
Librarian Michelle Hudson estimated that, adjusted for inflation, the overdue fine could amount to about 28,000 Australian dollars, roughly 1.8 million rubles, based on a charge of three pence per week noted on the book's flyleaf. However, borrower records from the 1870s have not survived, so it is impossible to establish who last checked the book out.
The book came back in poor condition, with water stains and damage from its long time in storage, but it will still be added to the library's historical collection. Hudson joked that there were no plans to return it to general circulation, saying the library did not want to wait another 150 years to get it back.
No fear of a fine
Simmons, who is now 77, said he was not worried about facing the librarians' anger over his ancestor's debt.
Similar find in Germany
The discovery follows a similar case in Germany, where the library of Heidelberg University found a 15th-century manuscript that had long been considered a lost part of the Bibliotheca Palatina, a renowned Renaissance-era library. The university had acquired the manuscript in 1937 from an antiquarian book dealer, but its connection to the Bibliotheca Palatina was not identified at the time.
