Some books are returned late. Others wait until history has become their alibi.
In Kiama, Australia, renovators opened a sealed fireplace and found an 1858 copy of The Antiquities of Athens inside a bricked-in tea chest. The volume belonged to the local library and appears to have been overdue for roughly 150 years.
The fine was calculated at AU$28,000. The borrower, having declined to leave forwarding information, remains unavailable for comment.
At a certain point, overdue becomes archival.
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