Library book returned after 150 years, $28k fine waived

It might be about 150 years late, but The Antiquities of Athens has been returned to the New South Wales library from where it was borrowed.

The book was discovered in a tea chest bricked into a fireplace by a family renovating their home in Kiama, on the state's South Coast.

"The family has been in Kiama a long time and discovered this as part of unveiling the old fireplace in the house," Kiama Library manager Michelle Hudson said.