Kiama Library overdue book found inside fireplace after about 150 years

A Kiama Library overdue book has made a comeback after about 150 years, turning up not on a dusty shelf but sealed inside a fireplace during a home renovation in New South Wales.

UPI reported that the Australian library said on social media that a family brought the book back over the weekend after the renovation project exposed a tea desk that had been bricked into the home’s fireplace.

The returned volume was The Antiquities of Athens, a book published in 1858. According to Kiama Library, its history with the book appears to stretch back to the period when the Kiama Public Library operated out of the old Kiama School of Arts.

That places the book’s library life somewhere between 1872 and 1890, the library said. The precise borrowing date is no longer known, but officials estimate the book was likely out for roughly a century and a half.

How long was the Kiama Library book overdue?

Kiama Library estimates the book was probably borrowed about 150 years ago. The exact checkout date has been lost, according to the library, so the figure is an estimate based on when the public library was housed at the old Kiama School of Arts.

If the borrower had been facing the library rules from that era, the bill would have been a jaw-dropper. The library said the overdue charge would have grown to nearly $20,000 under the bylaws in place when the book was likely borrowed.

That bill is staying theoretical. Kiama Library said it no longer charges overdue fines, sparing the returning family from what would have been one of the more awkward desk conversations in library history.

The book’s strange hiding place gave the return its extra kick. The library said the volume was found in a tea desk that had been sealed into the fireplace, a discovery made only because the house was being renovated.

Despite the unusual storage conditions and the very long absence, the library described the book as being in “remarkably good condition.” UPI reported that the volume will not be sent back out for public borrowing.

Instead, the library plans to keep it as a display piece. Kiama Library said The Antiquities of Athens will become part of its collection of significant items, ending its marathon loan with a permanent spot in the building’s historical holdings.

For the library, the return ties together a rare old book, a local institution’s earlier home and a renovation surprise that waited behind brickwork for generations. The borrower’s name, like the checkout date, has not been reported.

This story draws on original reporting from UPI.