Book hidden in fireplace returned to Australian library 150 years overdue

bbc ^ | 08/07/2026 | Lana Lam

[BenLurkin]

A book borrowed 150 years ago has finally been returned to an Australian library, with the culprit linked to the Houses of Parliament in London.

Antiquities of Athens was borrowed from a local library in Kiama, a seaside town about 120km (75 miles) south of Sydney, some time in the mid-1870s.

The book on classic Greek architecture was stored in a tea chest hidden behind a boarded-up fireplace for decades before it was recently discovered by a family member.

Ross Simmons, 77, thinks his great-grandfather, John Simmons, might have borrowed the book to help with his career, having worked as an apprentice stonemason in Westminster in the mid-1800s before becoming an architect in Australia.

...

Kiama Library staff worked out that the fine would be £97 - or in today's currency AU$28,000 ($20,000; £15,000), allowing for inflation. But luckily for the Simmons family, the fine has been waived.

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs

[Verginius Rufus]

I have a two volume edition of the Septuagint (mostly a translation from Hebrew but it includes a few texts originally written in Greek). I have read bits of it but haven't tried to read large amounts. I also have the Greek New Testament which is a lot easier to handle (as a physical book), I have read a little of Homer but prefer classical prose authors like Thucydides and Xenophon. I have read the Epic of Gilgamesh in translation only--no intention of trying to learn to read it in the original.

For one of my undergraduate Greek classes, we read nearly the whole of Plato's Phaedo. In a high school Latin class we read Cicero's De amicitia.

[Red Badger]

I have read the Epic of Gilgamesh in translation only--no intention of trying to learn to read it in the original.

I'll wait for the movie............ 😉

[Red Badger]

I have read the Epic of Gilgamesh in translation only--no intention of trying to learn to read it in the original.

I'll wait for the movie............ 😉

[nwrep]

Nonsensical comment.

[Verginius Rufus]

Will it be an R movie or an X movie? Thinking of the episode with Enkidu and the temple prostitute....

[Red Badger]

It will be a Disney movie..................😆

[Verginius Rufus]

It will be a Disney movie........

With cute talking animals?

[Red Badger]

That sing too!..............

[Verginius Rufus]

Initially Enkidu is living with the animals, so there is scope there for talking and singing animals. Maybe the snake that eats the plant which would have rejuvenated Gilgamesh can get a speaking role. Or maybe the trees in the cedar forest will be able to talk.

[x]

But luckily for the Simmons family, the fine has been waived.

Um ... Do library fines and inheritance laws work that way? Will I inherit my parents' traffic and parking fines? Maybe we should keep quiet about that so the government doesn't get any ideas.

[ApplegateRanch]

Thank goodness the library got it back before an AI company could snatch & shred it.

[Fresh Wind]

Cookbook?.........

A logbook.

[Red Badger]

ISWYDT...........