Lupita Nyong’o’s Stolen Oscars Dress Returned, Thief Claims Pearls Are ‘Fake Bulls**t’

The handmade pearl-covered dress stolen from actress Lupita Nyong’o was returned Friday at the same London West Hollywood hotel where it was stolen from just two days ago. The thief claims that the 6,000 pearls are phony, according to several reports.

The thief returned the dress claiming that it was a fake, and wanted everyone to know. He reportedly called the dress “Hollywood’s fake bulls**t,” according to the TMZ report. The anonymous person called TMZ around 2:30 p.m. on Friday, claiming that they had the stole the pearl dress when the room to Nyongo’o’s room was ajar.

The alleged thief and his friends took a few pearls off the dress and brought them to a garment district in downtown Los Angeles to find out their value. He was then told that the 6,000 pearls were fake. TMZ contacted the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department after they received the phone call from the alleged thief. Detectives then found the pearl-covered dress inside a garbage bag and stashed in a public restroom near the hotel’s gym.

Lt. Mike White of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department made the announcement about the recovered dress. He said, “We believe this dress is the dress that was stolen from the London Hotel.” The thief has not yet revealed his or her identity, and police currently don’t have any suspects in custody over this Hollywood heist.

Investigators will continue to review security footage and question people who may have had access to Nyong’o’s hotel room before it disappeared on Wednesday. A news conference was also held on Friday where officials said that they were going to continue to investigate the thief who stole the gown.

Whether the pearls on the dress are real is irrelevant at this time. The dress itself, could also be a knockoff of Nyong’o’s Oscars dress. However, detectives will work with Nyong’o and anyone involved with the dress to confirm if it’s in fact real. The authenticity of the pearls will not affect the outcome of the investigation, officials say.

White did note that some of the pearls were falling off the dress, but most of the dress appears to be intact. The Inquisitr was one of the first sites to report that Nyong’o’s dress was stolen from her hotel room. It was believed that the dress was stolen between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

The dress was designed by Francisco Costa, as part of the Calvin Klein Collection. It is estimated to be worth $150,000, if the pearls are indeed real. Nyong’o recently told Yahoo! Style that she helped Costa design the dress.

“It was so much fun to create this dress. We talked about it being fluid and liquid. I wanted it to be an homage to the sea.”

Despite this strange Hollywood heist, the Oscars dress has made Lupita Nyong’o one of the best dressed of the night.

[Images: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]