Book Returned to Australian Library After 150 Years: A Century-and-a-Half Overdue

An Australian public library has received a book returned an estimated 150 years late. The book, 'Antiquities of Athens,' published in 1858, was found during recent home renovations inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace.

The man who found the book had no connection to the library and simply returned it last week. According to the librarian, Michelle Hudson, the library has never received anything that old before.

The fine for returning the book so late would be around 28,000 Australian dollars ($19,500), calculated on the British three pence-a-week overdue fee printed inside the cover.

Hudson said there's no way to track down the final borrower who accrued the debt since the library journal from the 1870s that recorded borrowers had been lost. The returned book will be displayed in the library's local history collection and won't be allowed to leave again.