Lupita Nyong’o’s 2015 Oscar gown, adorned with more than 6,000 pearls, is missing. According to authorities, the custom-made Calvin Klein Collection dress, which she wore to Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, was nabbed from her room at The London West Hollywood hotel.
On Wednesday night, police received a call at 11:23 p.m. claiming that the dress, valued at $150,000, had been taken. While detectives from the LAPD don’t have any leads at this time, they are reportedly investigating the theft by reviewing security surveillance video and interviewing staff and other witnesses in hopes of identifying the culprit.
Following the shocking news, The London quickly released a statement: “This is a terribly unfortunate situation, and we are working with law enforcement on their investigation,” E! News reports.
The dress took months to create and was designed by Francisco Costa in collaboration with Nyong’o.
“[We created] a series of textures with intricate placements of a variety of different-sized pearls,” Costa told Vogue. “We looked at a variety of different pearls — South Sea, iridescent and natural — and decided that the natural pearls looked the most beautiful.”
This type of theft is not uncommon. “It’s not shocking to me that this would be taken out of her hotel room,” style expert and fashion commentator Mary Alice Stephenson tells Yahoo! “There are a lot of collectors out there who are very private and have private collections of stolen merchandise. Some of these dresses have global fame as big as any Van Gogh.”
And yes, while a dress like Nyong’o’s could fetch a pretty penny on the black market, the thief could run into some difficulty when it comes to attracting a buyer. After all, this is a one-of-a-kind gown, worn by one of Hollywood’s most famous faces. The buyer would basically have to bury it for a century.
